Chair c. 1735

This red and gold lacquered chair was made by Giles Grendey, an English cabinetmaker renowned in the 18th century for exporting furniture across Europe. Grendey's chair reflects the period's fascination with Chinoiserie, a style that incorporated imagined elements of Chinese and East Asian design. While such aesthetics were fashionable amongst the elite, we must consider the context in which these objects were created. Colonial trade routes facilitated the availability of novel materials and artistic styles, obscuring the realities of exploitation and labor that underpinned their creation. What stories would this chair tell if it could speak? Whose bodies were meant to inhabit it, and who was excluded from its comfort? The chair invites us to reflect on the social hierarchies embedded within seemingly innocuous objects.