Lot Essay
To support the Danish chair-makers in competition with the English, German and French, the government embargoed the import of foreign chairs in the early 18th Century. This halted the development of the chair form, which only received new impulses through publications. This caused the shapes of the chairs to remain largely early Georgian for much of the Century, while the decoration was altered to adjust to the fashionable taste. This particular pair bears witness to this fact by having a developed rococo decoration on an early 18th Century chair form. A comparable chair, believed to have been made between 1730 and 1740, is at Holstenshuus, Denmark (T. Clemmensen, Mobler paa Clausholm, Langeso og Holstenhuus, Copenhagen, 1946, p. 156, fig. 312).