SOUTH INDIA, BASICALLY CIRCA 1820-30

細節

AN INDIAN IVORY CHAIR
South India, basically circa 1820-30
The curved toprail with applied ivory scolling foliate motifs centred by two confronted birds, later panels below each containing a lightly engraved erotic scene, the curved arms with similar applied scrolling motifs terminating a balustrade, resting on carved figures of gopis with children, the velvet covered seat fronted by a rail of similar erotic panels to the back, on cabriole legs, the erotic panels probably later additions at the time the form of the chair was altered
39¾ in. (101 cm.) wide; 39½ in. (100.5 cm.) high

注意事項

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拍品專文

This remarkable chair has many elements which point to a Southern Indian origin, although there is no other published comparable piece. The figures on the arms, with their stocky proportions, and with the jewellery being the only thing setting off their very smooth bodies, are fully in the South Indian tradition. The scrolling ivory details on the cresting and upper arms is also comparable to earlier work produced in wood on the Coromandel coast (Jaffer, Amin: Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, no.2, p.138 for example). They are however combined in a form which is not at all typical for South Indian furntire, resting on fully fledged Georgian feet. This is in contrast to the South Indian aesthetic which remained fairly firmly settled in the seventeenth century even when it had in reality long passed. Madras, with its stronger British presence, is one of the few places where it might have been made.

The ivory panels which now cover the front rail and back are almost certainly a later addition, worked in the West Indian Orissa style, but rather less inhibited in the degree of detail and scale than the miniatures of the earlier period.