18th Century Chinese Export Carved Padouk Corner Chair

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18th Century Chinese Export Carved Padouk Corner Chair

About the Item

Attributed to a Chinese chair maker working in Goa, India, circa 1765. With triple pierced splats decorated with pierced ruyi-head, flanked by scrolling arms, scalloped edges to the seat rails and standing on cabriole legs joined by X-frame stretchers, on pad feet. In his book ‘Luxury Goods From India: The art of the Indian cabinet-maker’, Amin Jaffer explains that ‘the inverted cloud motif on the splats derives from the head of a ruyi (literally ‘what one wants’), a wand associated with good fortune and the realization of worldy aspirations. Ruyi seem to have evolved as a fashionable accessory after the end of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) but were still current in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) at which time they had heads in the shape of stylized clouds’. It was highly likely that Chinese chair makers were working in Portugese India (see Amin Jaffer, ‘Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker’, London: V&A, 2002, p.79). At this time, Goa was the largest territory in what became known as the State of Portuguese India, but these chairs reflect the fashion for English furniture forms that was popular in southern India in the mid-18th century. It is also known that Chinese craftsmen were working in Goa at that time. There is a very closely related pair of corner chairs at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London (See Jaffer, op. cit., illustrated on p.78). These two chairs are made of East Indian rosewood, dated 1760-1970 and have similar pierced ruyi-head on the splats. Interestingly, Amin Jaffer explains that, when these chairs were acquired by the V&A in 1879, they were erroneously believed to be of mid-eighteenth century English manufacture. Jaffer illustrates an East India Company gouache from the mid-18th century depicting ‘An English official in discussion with a nawab and his sons’ (Jaffer, op. cit., p.79). This gouache depicts a pair of similar corner armchairs, which have cabriole legs with similar distinctive low cross-stretchers.

Dimensions:
Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 20 in (50.8 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Padouk,Carved
Place of Origin:
India
Period:
1760-1769
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1765
Condition:
Seller Location:
Sutton Coldfield, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 63771stDibs: LU122325062983