ATTRIBUTED TO PAULY ET CIE., LATE 19TH CENTURY

This fantastical chair is an example of Grotto furniture, so called after the fashion amongst the European nobility for building whimsical shell-encrusted grottos during the 18th and 19th centuries. Almost certainly of Venetian origin, there were by the mid 19th century a number of workshops specialising in the production of carved and gilt-gesso shell furniture in Venice, of which Pauly et Cie. was the leading firm by the 1880s.

A comparable seat, modelled as a turtle, as opposed to crab as the present lot, sold Christie's, London, 13 May 2008, lot 520 (£22,100). A further example of which is illustrated in D. Linley, Extraordinary Furniture, London, 1996, p. 166.