Lot Essay
This bergère, with six serpentined acanthus-wrapped legs terminating in lion-paws, relates to an 18th Century pattern introduced by the Dutch East India Company. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam owns a related 18th Century Sri-Lankan chair, thought to be executed in kumbuk wood (Terminalia arjuna). Its pattern was popularised in the 19th Century by inclusion in the antiquarian Henry Shaw's Specimens of Ancient Furniture, 1833 (J. Veenendaal, Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India during the Dutch Period, Delft, 1985, p. 110, pl. 130).