BAREILLY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF EAST INDIAN BLACK AND POLYCHROME JAPANNED CHESTS-ON-STANDS
Bareilly, early 19th century
Each chest decorated overall with panels of flowers on a trellis ground, in borders of scrolling flowers, with a hinged lid enclosing a turquoise painted interior, on a conformingly-decorated stand with ring-turned baluster legs and tapering feet, losses to decoration, the stands probably Regency and redecorated
35¾ in. (91 cm.) high; 35¼ in. (85.5 cm.) wide; 21¼ in. (54 cm.) deep (2)

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Lot Essay

This pair of chests-on-stand are most likely to have come from Bareilly in Eastern India. This area was renowned for the production of Western style furniture with Chinese japanned or lacquered decoration, often using Western floral patterns. A related suite of furniture, probably from nearby Patna, is illustrated in a watercolour of about 1780 depicting the leading social figure, Lady Impey in the dressing room of her Calcutta house (A. Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, p. 255, fig. 15 and p. 267, fig. 117). The pattern of carpet seen in the watercolour, with its bands of scrolling foliage relates to the decoration on the present pair of chests. A small chest on stand from Bareilly, but of a later 19th century Victorian design, is decorated with Chinese-style pagodas in a band of scrolling foliage. This type of decoration, similar to the present pair of chests but in black and gilt, is often mistakenly thought to have come from Canton (ibid., p. 269, no. 95).

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