A MAGNIFICENT AND MASSIVE PAIR OF RED LACQUER AND GILTWOOD SIDE CHAIRS

A MAGNIFICENT AND MASSIVE PAIR OF RED LACQUER AND GILTWOOD SIDE CHAIRS
Probably Venice. Signed With Initials T e H R And Dated 1711.
Measurements
Height: 54 3/4" (139m)
Width: 37 1/2" (95cm)
Depth: 19 1/4" (49cm)
Research
Of red lacquer and parcel gilt. Each with a shaped top rail centred with a carved mollusc shell flanked by gilt foliate branches, the uprights similarly shaped, the upholstered back edged below with giltwood carved as a fringe, the upholstered seat above the gilt seat rail similarly carved as a fringe, the whole raised on four legs, the rear square backswept legs joined by a plain stretcher dated and initialled to the reverse, the scrolling parcel gilt front legs decorated with foliate branches and joined by a scrolling stretcher centred by a gilt mollusc shell.

The present chairs are bold and over-scale examples of the exuberantly carved and vividly coloured chairs being created in the early part of the eighteenth century to furnish the enchantingly sensuous palazzos of Venice, then “an enchanted city of carnivals, masques, amusement and pretence.”1 The presence to the reverse of the chairs of a date and signature is extremely rare on an early eighteenth century piece of Italian furniture and dates them precisely to 1711.

The chairs are an example of the modified form in which the high-backed chair of the renaissance persisted into the eighteenth century, ranged with cabinets and tables against the walls of the grand formal rooms of Italian palazzos. Throughout Italy the predominantly rectilinear form of these chairs was given more exuberant expression through the ornate carving, gilding and the application of often vivid colour seen in the present chairs.

Full research report available on request.