Artist:Unknown
Medium: Ebonized wood (cherry?), gilt incising, modern horsehair upholstery
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:ca. 1885
Dimensions: 33 x 18 x 20 in. (83.8 x 45.7 x 50.8 cm)
Collections:
Accession Number: 2012.89
Image: CUR.2012.89.jpg,
Catalogue Description: An ebonized side chair with gilt decoration of rectilinear form in the Anglo-Japanese style, the square seat and U-shaped back with modern horsehair upholstery in a two-tone light red color woven in a stylized rosette pattern. The top rail is decorated with a shallowly-carved stylized floral motif on a textured gilt ground, above a machine-carved band of fretwork alternating with evenly spaced halved flowers. The angled finials are topped with carved parallel grooves, their sides decorated with a geometrical scrolling motif. The rectangular stiles are decorated with a carved pattern of gilded clustered dots above an abstracted floral design on a gilt ground, resting on turned cylinders decorated with a gilded pattern above stylized rectangular fluted columns terminating in an abstracted crisscross gilded design on a black ground. The solid area surrounding the rounded upholstered back is carved in a shallow key pattern on a textured black ground, above an open lower rail with evenly spaced turned spindles evoking stylized machine parts and a rectangular cartouche decorated with a shallowly-carved floral pattern that echoes the carving above the top rail. The seat rail is carved with simple grooves that evoke the design on the angled finials, around a central rectangular cartouche with an identical floral motif to that on the lower back rail, flanked by a gilded triangular design above a narrow apron with a geometrical outline, adorned with a carved and gilded linear pattern and two gilded trefoils inscribed within carved semi-circles. The knees are decorated with a square motif representing an abstracted leaf or seed shallowly carved on a gilt ground. The whole sits on turned legs of urn shape terminating in rotating brass castors. CONDITION: Overall good condition. The frame slightly fragile but ebonized ground and gilded decoration in good condition.