the upright frame with barleytwist legs and crossbars, the back with pierced scrollwork frieze and barleytwist arcading, 96 x 51 x 47cm

Provenance: Collection of Robert Skelton, O.B.E. (1929-2022)

From the second half of the 17th century until well into the 18th century, chairs of this form, many made wholly or partly of ebony, were produced under Dutch influence in Indonesia, The Coromandel Coast (India), Sri Lanka and The Cape (South Africa). It can be difficult to identify in which of these parts of the Dutch colonial world individual examples were made. Robert Skelton himself believed this chair to be from the Cape, and the restraint of the carving is similar to known examples. However, it is also quite close to an example from the Moluccas in the Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara Delft (S00337-4, Eliens 2002, cat.16, p.73). Skelton had another, more elaborate, example in his collection, acquired from an antique dealer in Earl's Court, London in the 1950s, which he subsequently donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS6-2000).