2 More

5 More

Ebony furniture of this type seems to have first been produced along the Coromandel Coast. Contemporaneous accounts, such as that of the Dutch traveller Georg Rumphius (1627-1702) recorded that the coast is 'exceptionally richly provided of this [ebony] as the natives make from it all kinds of curious work, as chairs, benches and small tables, carving them out with foliage and sculpture' (quoted in Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods from India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, 2002, no. 16, pp.46-47).Chairs and furniture of this type have been recorded in English collections from the mid-18th century, for a long time being mistaken as early English furniture. This misconception was fuelled by Horace Walpole (1717-97), a collector of this type of Indian furniture. A watercolour by John Carter of Walpole's Gothic Revival home in Strawberry Hill, dated to 1788, shows similar furniture (in the Lewis Walpole Library in Yale University Library, published in Jaffer, op. cit., p.46).

THREE ANGLO-INDIAN CHAIRS

COROMANDEL COAST, INDIA, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY

Details

THREE ANGLO-INDIAN CHAIRS
COROMANDEL COAST, INDIA, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY
A pair of ornately carved ebony chairs with openwork backrests decorated throughout with trailing foliage, flowers, birds and angels, highlighted in inlaid ivory, upholstered seats, a third large chair of similar design with rattan seat
The larger chair 3ft. 11in. (119cm.) high; the smaller pair 3ft. 2 ½in. (97cm.) high

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Sara Plumbly Director, Head of Department

splumbly@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2374

Lot Essay

These finely worked ebony chairs are similar to a chair in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (IS.6-2000). The similarities between the details and individual components of our chairs and the Victoria & Albert Museum chair are such that it is likely that they were produced in the same workshop.

Another very similar chair is in the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore (inv. 2011-00716-001) and a further pair were sold in Christie's, South Kensington, 25 May 2015, lot 85.

More from An Eye Enchanted: Indian Paintings from the Collection of Toby Falk

View All