Art Institute of Chicago

Armchair

Coromandel Coast, probably Madras (Chennai), India

Date

c. 1690–1700

Medium

Ebony, ivory, and rattan

Culture

Coromandel Coast

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Made by Indian craftspeople, this chair integrates Indian decoration into a European form. It was likely intended for a merchant of the English East India Company, a trading corporation with headquarters in Madras (now Chennai), India. The locally sourced ebony is carved with eagles associated with the Hindu god Garuda and dragon-like serpents and mermaids that reference Nagas, a group of Hindu deities. Wide-mouthed monkeys eat fruit at the base of Europeanstyle twisted legs. Armed English soldiers under the scrolled armrests are symbolic (and perhaps subversive) reminders of the exploitative colonial power of the merchants who commissioned or sat in this chair.

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