A North-Indian Hoshiapur brass-inlaid shisham wood folding chair

Late 19th century

 

The elegant chair overall inlaid with brass foliate motif, the back splat in the form of two birds, the armrests ending in two leopard heads.

H. 95 x W. 73.5 x D. 50 cm
 

Provenance:
G.E.A. Wolf (1874-1949), a Dutch resident in Madras in the nineteen-thirties and forties and thence by descent.

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Note:

The original design of this chair could be very old. X-folding chairs were already known in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. In Renaissance Italy, in the 16th century, this model became popular again, known as a “Savonarola” chair. In the 19th century, this design was widely copied in the Middle East and India.