Anglo-Indian Ebony Dining Chairs, Circa 1830

• Turning - Any part of a piece of furniture that has been turned and shaped with chisels on a lathe. Turned sections include legs, columns, feet, finials, pedestals, stretchers, spindles etc. There have been many varieties and fashions over the centuries: baluster, melon, barley-sugar, bobbin, cotton-reel, rope-twist, and so on. Split turning implies a turned section that has been cut in half lengthwise and applied to a cabinet front as a false decorative support.
• Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
• Ebony - Ebony is a close grained timber, black in colour. It has a fine texture which can be polished to a high gloss, making it suitable for venereering, inlay and stringing and its use as solid timber is resticted to small decorative items and ornamental decoration, such as chess pieces and musical instrument parts. The term "ebonised" means "faux ebony", timber that has been darkened during the polishing process to resemble ebony.
• Back Splat - The vertical or horizontal piece that joins the back to the seat, or between the two sides of the chair. The back splat stabilises and adds additional strength to the back.
• Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Anglo-Indian - furniture, chairs 63
• Anglo-Indian Vizagapatam and sadeli boxes - sewing and other boxes 347
• chairs, singles / pairs / threes, style or period
  • dining 258
  • Georgian 222