Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art
Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art
Auction Closed
November 9, 01:23 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
An Indo-Dutch carved ebony armchair
probably Coromandel Coast, circa 1660-80
the pierced top-rail carved with nude female figures (apsara) and mythic sea beasts (makara) centred by a winged female head, the uprights with birds, their eyes inset with ivory, the backs of twisted spindles spaced by turned finials, the panelled fields of the frame carved with low relief foliate decoration, with later caned drop-in seat of ebonised beech, on a spirally turned legs
Probably acquired by Thomas, 1st Viscount Weymouth (1640-1714) for Longleat House, Wiltshire as part of a suite of ebony furniture including twelve armchairs;
thence by descent until sold Christie's London, Important English Furniture including The Property of the Marquess of Bath from Longleat, Wiltshire, 17 November 1988, lot 75;
With Rainer Zietz Ltd. London;
Bonhams, The Contents of the St Lucian Property of Lord Glenconner, 28 Sep 2011, lot 2 where acquired by the present owner.
Part of the suite recorded in the Best Gallery (No. 56), 15 September 1740 described as 'An Ebony Table with Fine India carving, 2 Dozen of chairs ditto, 12 of the with Elbows Fine Cane Bottoms' (Longleat Archive, NMR, E3AA).
RELATED LITERATURE
Jan Veenendaal, Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, Delft, 1985, pp. 47-69;
Clive Wainwright, 'Only the True Black Blood', Furniture History, Vol. XXI, 1985, pp. 252-253;
The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 21, 1993, p. 143;
Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, V&A Publications, 2001, p. 137, fig. 64.