Armchair of beechwood decorated with japanning in imitation of tortoiseshell, with gilded details, the legs of cabriole form, the seat and shaped back panel caned.

Armchair of beechwood decorated with japanning in imitation of tortoiseshell, with gilded details, the legs of cabriole form, the seat and shaped back panel caned.

The chair is of beechwood, japanned in imitation of tortoiseshell, with gilded outlining of back, seat, and carved details, and with gilt decoration in the form of trailing plants on back, seat-rails and legs. The back and seat are caned with a rather close mesh and may be original. The back is basically rectangular, with rounded shoulders, the top-rail rising through concave curves to a central cresting incorporating a scallop shell in relief. The serpentine arms terminate in scrolls. Cabriole legs front and back, ending in pad feet, the front legs having a raised, elongated, shoe-horn shaped panel on the knees ending in a bell flower.

Construction
The construction of the frame is of typical mortise and tenon form. The caning of the seat is done into a separate frame that was fixed down to the top of the seat rails before the arms were added and the whole was decorated. This form of construction was standard for caned chairs as it allowed the frames to be sent to the caners as an independent unit.

Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through the Art Fund

Given by Brigadier W.E. Clark, through the National Art-Collections Fund (Registered Papers for acquisition 65/1681). This armchair is likely to have been part of a suite when it was made. In 1970 the Keeper of Furniture, Peter Thornton, raised the question of whether this chair might be German, where japanning was also popular in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. However, German chairs of the period generally still retain a substantial central, vertical splat and also have stretchers joining the legs.

The taste for Asian lacquer had developed with British collectors in the later 17th century and makers in Britain soon became adept at producing their own version of the lustrous and strongly coloured decoration. The material of actual lacquer (sap from the tree rhus vernicifula) was not available in Europe so imitations using coloured varnished were developed and were called 'japanning' in an attempt to link the products to the much more expensive lacquer wares. Japanners made cabinets and screens in imitation of pieces imported from East Asia, but also used the technique on chairs and mirrors, which were essentially European forms of furniture. The jappaner who decorated this chair, has worked his varnished to imitate tortoiseshell (actually the shell of a marine turtle), which was fashionable at the same time as one of the constituents of a form of veneered decoration that combined turtle shell with brass in complex patterns (known as boulle marquetry).

W.12-1965