Side chair

During the second quarter of the 19th century, English craftspersons made a wide range of objects that were decorated with paint and mother-of-pearl. Some of the furniture, especially that constructed of papier-mâché, was innovative in terms of its material and shape. The flared back of this chair, for example, would be difficult to create in wood but could easily be shaped using pliable sheets of paper. Because papier-mâché damages easily when under stress, most of this furniture has wooden or metal supporting elements. Some is even entirely constructed from wood, but decorated in papier-mâché. This chair has a wooden seat frame to which the wooden legs and caning are attached.

The vogue for furniture decorated with dark lacquer, shell, and paint lasted into the mid-19th century. In 1860, for example, the two main centers of production, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, employed between 1,000 and 2,000 craftspersons making this line of furniture and related articles (Joy 1977, 272).

"Decorative Arts Highlights from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection," page 54