A VICTORIAN EBONIZED SIDE CHAIR

The present lot is related to the work of Christopher Dresser. Greatly influenced by ornamentalist Owen Jones (1809-1874), under whom he apprenticed, Dresser absorbed and expanded upon Jones’ designs, focusing on the synthesis of ornament from various cultures (C. Newton, The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 29, Christopher Dresser in Context: Papers of the Symposium held jointly by the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Decorative Arts Society 18 October 2004 (2005), pp. 30-41). While the form of the chair and ebonized treatment of the wood is similar to that of a Klismos chair, the pointed arch of this chair back is reminiscent of the Hispano-Moresque arches of the Alhambra, and illustrations reproduced in Jones’ The Grammar of Ornament (1856). These same influences can be seen in Dresser’s textiles. The upholstery on the present lot is similar to designs printed in Dresser’s Studies in Design, published in 1874, such as plates XXVII and LVL.