{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O71460"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O71460/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM9033/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM9033/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AM9033","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016HY8588","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KU0276","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LX1338","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O71460/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O71460","accessionNumber":"413-1882","objectType":"Chair","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>Carved ebony furniture was made in vast quantities during the second half of the 17th century in India, Sri Lanka and the Dutch East Indies. Among the forms made are large suites of chairs and settees and, less commonly, tables, cradles, beds, cabinets and boxes.<br><br><b>Places</b><br>No other group of Indo-European furniture has been as misunderstood as this one. Carved ebony chairs and tables of this kind have been recorded in English collections from as early as the mid-18th century, and much of the confusion about their origin is due to the belief held in the latter part of that century and most of the 19th that they were surviving examples of early English furniture. The writer and collector Horace Walpole seems to have been responsible for this attribution, based on the existence of examples in houses with Tudor associations. The use of twist-turning, which was believed to be typical of Elizabethan furniture, the intricate carving, which often included mythical beasts and figures, and the colour, black, which was commonly associated with furniture of great antiquity, all led to this gross misattribution. Even in the 20th century chairs of this type were still being described as 'Jacobean' or 'Indo-Portuguese'. However, Dutch East India Company inventories of the late 17th century confirm beyond doubt that the Coromandel Coast in south-east India was the centre of production for carved ebony furniture, with examples later also being made in Sri Lanka and Jakarta, Indonesia. <br><br><b>People</b><br>Because of the confusion surrounding the origin of carved ebony furniture, individual pieces have sometimes acquired romantic Tudor associations. In 1748 Horace Walpole saw chairs of this type at Esher Place, Surrey, and believed them to have been the property of Cardinal Wolsey, who had lived there after 1519. In mid-19th century inventories and sale catalogues chairs of carved ebony were sometimes simply described as 'Wolsey chairs'. A suite comprising ebony chairs, a bed and a table at Berkeley Castle was believed to have furnished Francis Drake's cabin on the <i>Golden Hind</i>, while an ebony bed formerly at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, allegedly furnished the chamber of Henry VIII.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ebony","id":"AAT12055"},{"text":"cane (plant material)","id":"AAT11864"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ebony, carved and turned; drop-in seat has new caning","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"British Galleries","id":"THES48985"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2006AM9033","2016HY8588","2018KU0276","2019LX1338"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"120LP","id":"THES49900"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chair","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Coromandel Coast","id":"x32021"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1680-1700","earliest":"1680-01-01","latest":"1700-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bought (Hamilton Palace Collection)","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"96.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"48.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"47","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"48","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"seat","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Made on the Coromandel coast, south-east India, by an unknown chairmaker and carver.\r\n\r\nBought (Hamilton Palace Collection). This acquisition information reflects that found in the Museum records (Asia Department registers and/or Central Inventory) as part of a 2023 provenance research project.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Side chair, ebony, Coromandel Coast, c.1680-1700.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jaffer, Amin <font u>Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum</font u>. London : V&A Publications, 2001. 416 p., ill. ISBN 1851773185. p.141, fig.4."},{"reference":{"text":"The art of India and Pakistan, a commemorative catalogue of the exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1947-8. Edited by Sir Leigh Ashton. London: Faber and Faber, [1950]","id":"AUTH343744"},"details":"p. 236, cat. no. 12yy","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"vines","id":"AAT132406"},{"text":"flowers","id":"x31099"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nFollowing the example set by  Horace Walpole (1717-1797), many collectors bought such chairs. This chair is slightly later in date than the other one shown here, as indicated by the less densely carved top rail and seat rail.  In the 19th century it belonged to Alexander Hamilton, 10th  Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852).  Although he bought similar chairs himself, it is possible that he inherited this one from his father-in-law, the collector William Beckford (1760-1844).","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["413-1882"],"accessionNumberNum":"413","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1882,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN1624","2019LP8925","2019LT9542","2019LV7281"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-24","recordCreationDate":"2002-12-05","availableToBook":false}}