A Chinese Export Red Lacquer Armchair, Circa 1750

A & J Speelman Ltd, London;

Rolleston, London.

This unusual export corner-chair with its gold decoration on a sealing-wax red ground typifies the manner in which the Chinese artisan attempted to interpret English furniture designs, but then allowed eastern methods of construction. The profile of the legs, although similar to English examples, has a higher claw support, with a larger ball than found in European examples. The form of this corner chair closely resembles English examples dating from the same period. Two pairs of export chairs with a very similarly conceived leg were sold Sotheby’s New York, 16 October 2009, lots 33 and 34. 

Chinese chairs were exported to England by the East India company as early as 1726, when '24 Chairs of rosewood inlaid with mother of pearl' were brought in at a total value of £12. Exports of lacquer chairs were recorded the following year, and became more common from the 1730s, including a set of eight black and gilt-lacquer chairs supplied to Sir Francis Greville (1719-73), 8th Baron Brooke, later 1st Earl of Warwick for Warwick Castle, Warwickshire. One chair from this suite is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (FE.116&A-1978), and two others formerly in the Simon Sainsbury collection were sold Christie's London, 18 June 2008, lot 185. A further set of twelve almost identical chairs bearing the monogram of King Christian IV and Queen Sophie Magdalene of Denmark were imported by the Danish East India Company in 1735 and are now in Fredensborg Castle (J. Clemmensen, 'Some Furniture Made in China in the English Style, Exported from Canton to Denmark 1735, 1737 and 1738', Furniture History Society Journal, 1985, p. 175, figs. 1-3).