The East Indies is a historical European term for the lands of South and Southeast Asia, broadly covering the Indian subcontinent, the Malay peninsula and the islands of present-day Indonesia, and sometimes extended to include China and Japan. It was used in contrast to the West Indies of the Caribbean, and appears frequently in historical trade records, maps and inventories.
From the seventeenth century, trading companies such as the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, the VOC, brought spices, tea, silks, cotton textiles, lacquer, porcelain, ivory, exotic timbers and furniture to Europe. This trade had a profound influence on European decorative arts, inspiring chinoiserie, chintz, japanning and the use of woods such as ebony, rosewood, satinwood and padouk. In the antiques world, items described as East Indies or East India trade include Anglo-Indian and Indo-Portuguese furniture, export porcelain, colonial silver and Dutch colonial pieces made from local hardwoods. Collectors are interested in the blending of Asian craftsmanship with European forms, and provenance linking an object to a particular voyage, family or company merchant adds considerable appeal.
