18TH CENTURY ANTIQUE DUTCH MARQUETRY INLAID WALNUT SIDE CHAIR ~ NORTH WIND FACE, CHERUBS, & MERMAID
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Bay Colony Antiques is proud to offer for sale this wonderful 18th century antique Dutch marquetry inlay side chair. Please take a moment to view the inlay patterns on the front and back as they’re some of the coolest designs we’ve seen in some time. The chair is littered with mythological elements including a north west wind face on the front of crest & a trio of cherubs with trumpets at the back. The chair has impressive floral & vine carvings along the stiles with an ebony ribbon along the back of the legs & inlaid tulips at the front ankles. The chair has carved knees and the entire seat box is decorated with matching inlay with floral panels on the front and back at the base of the splat. The front and back of the splat are decorated with a fantastic pattern with flowers, urns, and birds of paradise. The urns both have grotesque faces hidden in the center and the urn on the front of the splat has some kind of creature holding it up. We believe this is either an Atlas type figure or a depiction of a Melusine. Melusines depicted in North Western European / Lowland culture represent the duality of nature and also the cleansing aspect of water. The chair has a floral needlepoint seat and compliments the chair nicely with softer shades of green and pink. Marquetry furniture like this is susceptible to veneer chips and most have their fair share of fills and repairs. The chair is free of any structural repairs but has had some putty repairs, mostly around the seat box. Any veneer hits you see in the pictures will be properly repaired by our woodworker and we’ll ask him to try to better color match the existing repairs even though they're easy to glance over. There’s a small piece of veneer missing on the back crest where the cherubs are and we noticed the wood is backed with old German text. This was either done simply as a backer for the veneer or it could have been deliberately added for good fortune. We saw the word Vader peeking through so it may be a bible verse or just a coincidence. The chair measures 21” wide x 19 1/2” deep x 44 1/2” tall with a seat height of 18 1/2”.
