POSSIBLY GOA, MID-18TH CENTURY

These magnificent chairs fuse Roman and Eastern elements in an 'Indian' taste appropriate for the fashionable parlour of the 1730s. The pattern derives from a George II bacchic lion-footed chair, with triumphal arched back and 'India' vase splat inlaid in ivory white and black-figured rosewood; while its acanthus-garlanded 'Venus' shell derives from the French Roman fashion popularised by the Oeuvres of Jean Bérain. Related carved and lacquered chairs are discussed by C. L. Crossman, The China Trade, Woodbridge, 1988, p. 233. The latter and the present pair of chairs may be precursors of a mid-18th Century suite of seat furniture thought to have been executed for the Nawab of Arcot and subsequently bought by Lionel de Rothschild and sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 9 July 1998 (Dr. Amin Jaffer, 'On the Coast of Coromandel', Christie's Magazine, July 1998).