These chairs are adapted from late 17th and early 18th century English fur-niture designs but made by Chinese craftsmen. The front legs are in a square upright cabriole style (double-curved legs), with narrow turned top section beneath the seat. The main decoration is inlaid mother-of-pearl en-graved with leafy tendrils and flowerheads.Late 17th- and 18th-century English furniture was extremely popular across Europe, and was also made for other export markets. It is likely that chairs like this reached Asia (China, in this case) and then been copied for com-missioned furniture sets. They illustrate the artistic and cultural exchanges across trading networks in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.
