My Maharajah Palace-Indian Side Table

I made an Indian side table for the evil Maharajah today. This is not the Maharajah whom I am building the palace for but another. You see, Maharajah Ranjit has squandered his privy purse so fast, (on the ladies of course), that he is now a carpet trader travelling between Persia and India. The table is in fact standing on one of Ranjit's priced Turkoman carpet bought from Turkey more than 10 years ago. So you can say it is an antique piece.

This post however is about his table and not about him or his carpet.

Now, the table stands at about 1 7/8" high and the top is about 2 1/8" wide. It is made from dismantling 2 fretwork Chinese fans I bought last week. I cut the ends for the base parts because they are stronger. I then cut the "floral" bits as embellishments for the table top as I have yet to master marquetry. For the top itself, I used the inside of a cover from the container of Body Shop's Coconut Body Scrub which cuts like butter and smells heavenly, until the paint, that is.

Before assembly, I spray painted the parts and after I fit them together, with Tiger Glue, I spray painted the whole table again. If you see the pic on your right, you will see that I had wanted a gold table top at first but the flaws were too obvious and nothing hides flaws like Homogeneous Wenge so there, until I can accomplish the making of Moorish tables like Kimberly (Day 25), I won't be too adventurous with colours.

Well, the table is no masterpiece but then again, Ranjit isn't exactly paying me top dollars either.

And so Ranjit, rather pleased with the table for the pittance he paid (emphasis added), tried it with the vase of flowers a.k.a Mahendra's Roses of Mis-givings which he had taken from the palace.
Oh, it was quite perfect! Too bad Prince wanted a matching carpet (which explains why the vase is with Ranjit) and not a table.

He then tried putting it at the verandah of his bedroom,

O dear, the table almost disappears into the timber flooring so out of the window it went..the idea, not the table.

Ahh yes! Are there not a new batch of gorgeous perfume bottles from all the way down south made by this really talented perfumer, Mercedes? Can we not use the table as a display stand?

Oooh! He cooed. What a versatile table and the perfumes look really expensive on it too , Ranjit thought with a greedy glint.

And while he is already counting the extra rupees he has yet to earn from the wares he has yet to display, what better use for the table than to hold his pot of hot assam tea as he dreams on.