Armchair
Artist/designer unknown
Murshidabad, India
Ivory, carved, pierced and partly gilded, with a caned seat
Height 92.4 cm x Width 71.5 cm (approx.)
Museum no. 1075-1882

Elegant European styles of furniture were copied by Indian craftsmen using local materials, as in this ivory chair. This chair, its pair and the accompanying table are of solid ivory. They were made in Murshidabad, the nawabi capital of Bengal and a famous centre of ivory-carving. Furniture makers there made small quantities of western-style pieces, possibly only as commissions. Mani Begum of Murshidabad gave these pieces as part of a special gift to Warren Hastings, the first British Governor-General of India. Their western forms and exotic working reflect the blend of tastes at Indian courts at this time.