A PAIR OF BLACK LACQUER AND DECORATED SIDE CHAIRS MID 18TH CENTURYeach decorated overall with flowers and utensils, with yoke-toprail above an 'India-back' splat and padded later drop-in seat covered in tangerine floral material,on square cabriole legs and feet, refreshments to the decoration, the seat rails supported, five ears replaced112cm high, 52cm wide, 60cm deep overallProvenance:Christie's, Fine English Furniture, 18th September 2003, Lot 208 The earliest recorded chairs of this form with distinctive 'India' or 'bended' back is a set of twelve walnut chairs, listed in the 'Right Hand Parlour' at Canons Ashby House, Northamptonshire in November 1717. However, chairs of Oriental inspiration were listed as earlier, as 1677 in the Duchess of Lauderdale's Closet at Ham House, Surrey. They were described as 'painted black and gold...wth.Cane bottomes' and were en suite with a table and 'Indian boxe'. The Duchess' Black and fret-backed chairs were likewise gilded with flowers and birds appropriate to such an apartment, and the lacquer-fashioned 'japanning' of their frames corresponded to the fashion later popularised by Stalker and Parker's Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing in Imitation of the Indians,London, 1688 (P. Thornton,'Ham House', Furniture History, 1980.fig.87).The source of the splat is almost certainly China, as seen of Chinese Chairs of the Qing dynasty (c.1550-1600), and known as 'guan mao shi yi' which translates as 'shaped like an officers hat', in reference to the form of the toprail, similar to a milk-maid's or oxen's yoke. Furthermore, the japanned surface of the present chairs may have served to enforce their oriental nature, yet with the combination of the squared cabriole leg, the chairs are placed comfortably in the group of English seat-furniture datable to the 1720s, which demonstrated the ability of English furniture-makers to absorb and recreate diverse stylistic sources and create something characteristically English (A.Bowett,'The india-backed chair, 1715-40', Apollo, January,pp.3-9)An almost identical japanned chair at the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated in Bowett. ibid.,p.7,fig,8.