A Ceylonese carved ebony armchair Galle, 2nd quarter 19th century

with a pierced leaf-carved toprail above a similarly carved mid-rail and seat-rails, on turned and carved front legs

The distinctive nature of the carving applied to a design based on English contemporary prototypes is characteristic of  furniture produced for the colonial market in the Galle district of Ceylon during the first half of the 19th century.  The present chair closely compares with a type with sparse carving sometimes referred to as a `Raffles chair' after Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Java and founder of Singapore, during whose administration related chairs became popular in the former Dutch colonies. (cf. Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, 2001, p. 386, No. 192). A number of comparable chairs are illustrated in Jan Veenendaal's, Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. 1985, p. 132, figs. 165-167.