A large sled wedding chair with a footrest sissoo ivory inlays secured by gilt copper pins, seat, backrest, sides, front and footrest with straw indo-portuguese, Mughal influence 17th C. (1st half) restoration, later structure of the footrest, backrest with five altered panels - originally they would have contained mirrors and/or glass forming a kind of "reliquary" with dried flowers and branches -, replaced by sissoo plaques with ivory inlays fixed by gilt copper pins, some of the panels with replaced straw Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 133,5 x 89 x 75 cm Notes: a) This lot is subject to CITES export/import restrictions and is duly certified: No. 26PTLX02512C;
b) Currently, the import of goods incorporating materials from protected wild fauna and flora species, including, among others, ivory, coral and tortoiseshell, is prohibited by several countries;
c) In Portugal, in accordance with the planned transposition into national legislation of the most recent EU guidelines on the ivory trade, the issuance of re-export certificates to countries outside the EU is suspended;
d) In this context, potential buyers are advised to inform themselves beforehand about the legislation of their country and applicable international restrictions.


This chair belongs to a very small number of known copies of what are called «large Indian
wedding chairs»
In fact, as in the present case, the decorations of the Indo-Portuguese chairs in the National
Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid and in a private Portuguese collection are interesting
and rare. Both are of Mughal influence, following the Iberian Renaissance model of the «sled
chair»; which, instead of the traditional geometric spaces filled with «straw»; have one or more
spaces in the backrests filled with mirrors and others filled with glass that form a kind of
«reliquary»; containing dried natural flowers and branches inside. In the case of the first chair,
these spaces are completely empty, having lost the mirrors and/or the aforementioned
«reliquaries»;
Manuel Castilho tells us that similar chairs can be found in the Gayer-Anderson Museum in
Cairo. [1], at least two of them identified as «large Indian wedding chair» Manuel Castilho,
very accurately, deduces that, since there was no «European-style»; seating furniture in India
before the 18th century, except for the Indo-Portuguese chairs, the chairs found in the Cairo
Museum, like other Indian furniture and textiles, must have been taken by Gujarati merchants
to Ottoman Egypt, with whom they had strong trade ties.
If this is the case, the chairs found in the Cairo Museum are Indo-Portuguese of Mughal
influence type and, by their identification, they should have been used in India as "wedding
chairs". Therefore, we are forced to conclude that the chair found in the Museum of
Decorative Arts in Madrid (inv. no. 2950) [2] and another belonging to a private Portuguese
collection [3] are two copies of the so-called "large Indian wedding chairs".
Although structurally similar, as they originate from the same model, these chairs, in addition
to the decoration of the backrests, present several differences compared to the traditional
Indo-Portuguese ebony «sled chairs» one of which is crucial in determining their original
function. This difference is their greater and unusual width – 89 to 92 cm in the case of the
former; 67.5 to 75 cm in the case of the latter – and the consequent greater width of their seat
(if we consider the width of the armrests, then the difference in available seating space is
substantially greater), a width that allows us to see that the bride and groom sat
simultaneously in the chair during the wedding ceremony. We cannot fail to take into account
the unique physical features of the Indian population.
It appears we are dealing with the same model of Indo-Portuguese chairs produced under
Mughal influence, intended for different functions. Some, designated as «chairs of power»; (or
«state chairs»), were intended for use by the highest holders of political, social, and economic
positions in their respective communities, and were consumed in large quantities by the elites
of the East African coast; others, apparently designated as "large Indian wedding chairs," had
wider seats and symbolic decorations on their backs alluding to marriage – flowers – and were
consumed in large quantities by members of the Muslim elites of India – Gujarat – and various
Islamic states on the East African coast, from near the Horn of Africa (Mombasa and Zanzibar)
to Egypt.
Therefore, this chair belongs to a very select group of "large Indian wedding chairs," of which,
apparently, only those in the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo, the one in the National
Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid, and the one in a private Portuguese collection have
been registered so far, as we have seen.
[1] - vd. https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/9/36761/See-the-Museum-behind-James-Bond-
Movie – accessed on March 29, 2018, at 11:48 AM; and
https://www.losviajeros.net/fotos/africa/Cairo/index.php?fn=gayer2 – accessed on March 29,
2018, at 12:03 PM.
[2] - vd. exhibition catalogue “Os Construtores do Oriente Português”. Porto: National
Commission for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries, 1998, pp. 441-442, No
219.
[3] - vd. – DIAS, Pedro – “Mobiliário Indo-Português”. Moreira de Cónegos: Imaginalis, 2013,
pp. 207 and 213.