A COMPARISON OF MING DYNASTY CHINESE SEATING AND ENGLISH RATTAN CHAIRS 1660-1770 : The 17^<th> Century Rattan Chair Trade (Part 1)

Abstract

This paper examines the early design development of the rattan seat of English chairs and armchairs 1660-1700. The objective of this research is to provide additional data for scholars concerned with the dating and provenance of late 17^<th> century furniture, and to suggest a different approach to supplement conventional methods that rely largely on stylistic motifs that chronologically coincide with contemporary documentary evidence. This will be achieved through a structural survey of the chair seat frames of early English rattan-seated chairs and armchairs from their inception in England around 1660 to 1700. Two main points will be presented. 1) The early introduction of rattan into European chairs can be seen as belonging to a wider process of importation into Europe of other furniture forms and structures that are associated with Ming Dynasty China. 2) The early development of English rattan seats displays a degree of standardisation that could prove useful in further studies of individual categories of rattan seated chairs made at that time.