Side chair

Giles Grendey

ca. 1735–40 · Lacquered and gilded beech; caning · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The increase in trade between England and the Far East engendered a fascination for things Chinese in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This chair, though made in England, is decorated in imitation of Chinese lacquer, and the central splat bears an image of a mandarin with an umbrella. According to the original label still affixed to the chair, it was made by Giles Grendey of London, who "makes and sells all sorts of cabinet goods, tables, glasses, etc." The chair is one of some eighty such miscellaneous pieces that Grendey supplied on order to the duke of Infantado for his castle of Lazcano in Spain.

Artist

Giles Grendey

Date

ca. 1735–40

Medium

Lacquered and gilded beech; caning

Culture

British, Clerkenwell, London

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Louis J. Boury, 1937