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Lot Essay
This chair is a fascinating early example of hardwood furniture of Cantonese manufacture executed to Western designs. As Carl Crossman explains in his The China Trade, this furniture may have been made to special order, perhaps for a member of the British East India Company posted in China or on Macao, another company outpost. Furniture of this early date is a rarity as supported by the Company's ledgers which only lists a few dozen pieces per year during the 1720's and 1730's. Particularly rare in that this example is an armchair, it most likely formed part of a larger set. Other side chairs of this model were sold: Christie's, New York, 21 October 1999, lot 174 (a single); Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 4 April 1970, lot 149 (a single). Other similar examples are illustrated in C.L. Crossman, op.cit., Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, pp. 231 and 233, pl. 83-85.
The chair pattern directly copies an English prototype of the same date which may be attributed to the workshop of cabinet-maker Giles Grendey. A walnut armchair of this design from the Percival Griffiths Collection, with lion mask handholds, is illustrated in R.W. Symonds, English Furniture From Charles II to George II, 1929, p.149, fig. 95, later sold from the collection of Frank Crozer Knowles, Christie's New York, 22 October 1988, lot 243 ($220,000).
The chair pattern directly copies an English prototype of the same date which may be attributed to the workshop of cabinet-maker Giles Grendey. A walnut armchair of this design from the Percival Griffiths Collection, with lion mask handholds, is illustrated in R.W. Symonds, English Furniture From Charles II to George II, 1929, p.149, fig. 95, later sold from the collection of Frank Crozer Knowles, Christie's New York, 22 October 1988, lot 243 ($220,000).