CIRCA 1730

This chair and the following lot provide interesting insight into museum accessions and how long-separated sets can be reunited. Despite differences in surface patina, upholstery and wear, they are clearly from the same workshop, and up until a certain point shared the same history. Both chairs were in the Collection of Alexander Smith Cochran, heir and principal owner of the Alexander Smith & Sons carpet mills of Yonkers, and a major donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, particularly in the area of Persian manuscripts. This chair entered the collection directly from Cochran as part of a large donation of tapestries and furniture in 1911, while the following lot was in the collection of Irwin Untermyer before its accession to the museum.