Chair, one of a pair, of carved walnut, grained to imitate rosewood, with upholstered back and seat panel, covered in modern green velvet. Portuguese, similar to designs by José Francisco de Paiva.

Chair, one of a pair, of carved walnut, grained to imitate rosewood, with upholstered back and seat panel covered in modern green velvet, similar to designs by Jose Francisco de Paiva.
The chair has cabrole front legs with out-curving, tri-lobed feet, the knees carved with a fan-shaped motif above a cartouche. The back legs are raked, but not carved. The legs are joined by an H-form stretcher, each part of serpentine outline and with a higher, turned back stretcher. The back legs continue upwards to form the serpentine sides of the back, which is set in the centre with a solid splat, upholstered in green velvet, within a serpentine-sided frame. The top-rail is shaped and surmounted by a low cresting of rococo scrolls centreing on a pendant husk motif, with a pendant leaf at each side. The drop-in seat is covered in green velvet. The joint at the back of the seat has been strengthened by a metal support, painted to march the wood when in the Museum's collection.

Portugal and England signed the Methuen Treaty (named after the diplomat who brokered it) in 1703 and the influence of British design in Portugal developed throughout the 18th century. In Oporto the influence of English fashions was particularly strong as there was an established community of English merchants trading wine to England. This chair and its pair (W.18-1967) are made in walnut grained to look like the more expensive rosewood that was used for the most fashionable pieces. In the second half of the 18th century the influence of England was particularly strong. The design of these chairs looks back to designs that were first fashionable in England in the 1730s and later copied all over Europe.

The design is close to one for an armchair by the architect José Francisco de Paiva (1743-1824), a Portuguese draughtsman, cabinet-maker and later architect, working in Oporto and in various other cities in Northern Portugal. In 1783-4 he acted as an adjudicator and examiner for the guild. He worked extensively for the English community in Oporto and his designs showed influences from England, and also from France and Italy. The Van Zeller Collection of his drawings in the Museu de Arte Antigua in Lisbon documents his life as a designer and architect and the museum also holds items of furniture designed by him for the Van Zeller family (Dutch merchants). Other pieces designed by him are in the collection of the Oporto stock exchange and the 'British Factory' (and important centre for merchants). By 1797 he was working as an architect on the S. Ovidio Barracks in Oporto.

Further details of his life can be found in M.H. Mendes Pinto, José Francisco de Paiva: Ensemblador e arquitecto do Porto (Lisbon, 1973) and J. Delaforce. The Factory House of Oporto (Lisbon, 1983).

The Methuen Treaty of 1703 helped greatly to expand trade between England and Portugal. English goods, including furniture, were shipped in large quantities to Portugal, especially to Oporto, the centre of the Port wine trade. English cabinet-makers established themselves both in Oporto and Lisbon, and the influence of their styles was strongly felt. José Francisco de Paiva (1744 - 1824), Oporto's leading cabinet-maker, left a collection of 130 sheets of drawings dating from about 1780, now in the Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. These include furniture designs that show strong English influences, ranging from Rococo to Neo-Classical. This chair and its pair (W.18-1967) are remarkably similar to one of them.

W.17-1967