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Lot Essay
Exotic decorated ivory-veneered furniture was retailed in Madras and Calcutta by the English and Dutch East India Companies, but it was primarily manufactured in Vizagapatam, on the northern Coromandel Coast. As in this pair, the chair designs were often inspired directly from patterns published by London cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale in his The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director (1754-1763). Craftsmen in Vizagapatam had access to European engravings and pattern books and while it has not been determined whether these cabinet-makers were European or European-trained, what is known is that the European patrons played an active role in their production. A full discussion by Amin Jaffer can be found in his Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, pp. 197-200.
Other related chairs can be linked to eighteenth century European patrons stationed in India, acquired by presentation or direct commission. This notable group includes the suite of seat furniture in the Royal collection, including fourteen side chairs, that was acquired by George III for Queen Charlotte and is presently at Buckingham Palace (see J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace, 1968, p. 119). The suite originally belonged to Alexander Wynch (d.1781), an East India Company official and Governor of Fort St. George from 1773-1775 and was purchased by the King at his estate auction in 1781. The chair back incorporates similar heads representing the mythical makara beast, and characteristic flower sprig decoration to the frame. Another set of chairs of the same cabriole-legged design was presented by the East India Company to Sir Alexander Hamilton in 1770, one of which is now in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (illustrated in A. Jaffer, op. cit., p. 199, dust jacket cover and pl. 45). Six further chairs from the set were sold at Christie's, New York, 17 October 1992, lot 366 and are now in the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld (see E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, Christie's Books, 1998, p. 131, fig. 97). A set of chairs most akin to the present pair with straight legs is believed to have been owned by Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, and these would have passed on to the Earl of Rosebery to whom Hastings sold his London Park Lane House in 1797. Of these, four chairs are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, another pair was sold from the Wrightsmans's Palm Beach residence, Sotheby's, New York, 5 May 1984, lot 183 and a further pair sold from the estate of Lord Astor of Hever, Christie's, London, 13 February 1975, lots 38 and 39.
A chair of this precise design and almost certainly from the same commission is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, n.d., vol. II, p. 238, fig. 251.
Other related chairs can be linked to eighteenth century European patrons stationed in India, acquired by presentation or direct commission. This notable group includes the suite of seat furniture in the Royal collection, including fourteen side chairs, that was acquired by George III for Queen Charlotte and is presently at Buckingham Palace (see J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace, 1968, p. 119). The suite originally belonged to Alexander Wynch (d.1781), an East India Company official and Governor of Fort St. George from 1773-1775 and was purchased by the King at his estate auction in 1781. The chair back incorporates similar heads representing the mythical makara beast, and characteristic flower sprig decoration to the frame. Another set of chairs of the same cabriole-legged design was presented by the East India Company to Sir Alexander Hamilton in 1770, one of which is now in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (illustrated in A. Jaffer, op. cit., p. 199, dust jacket cover and pl. 45). Six further chairs from the set were sold at Christie's, New York, 17 October 1992, lot 366 and are now in the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld (see E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, Christie's Books, 1998, p. 131, fig. 97). A set of chairs most akin to the present pair with straight legs is believed to have been owned by Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, and these would have passed on to the Earl of Rosebery to whom Hastings sold his London Park Lane House in 1797. Of these, four chairs are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, another pair was sold from the Wrightsmans's Palm Beach residence, Sotheby's, New York, 5 May 1984, lot 183 and a further pair sold from the estate of Lord Astor of Hever, Christie's, London, 13 February 1975, lots 38 and 39.
A chair of this precise design and almost certainly from the same commission is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, n.d., vol. II, p. 238, fig. 251.