Victorian Faux Bamboo Side Chair, Aesthetic Movement, circa 1880
This chair, purchased at auction by Richard Christiansen during the early years of Flamingo Estate, features a turned hardwood frame carved and finished to mimic bamboo, down to the ring-turned joints and knuckle nodes at every junction. The back combines a diagonal brace set with four turned disc-and-ring roundels — a trellis motif borrowed from Anglo-Japanese lattice work — with turned ball finials and small pendant turnings at the crest. Splayed, ring-turned legs joined by an H-stretcher, fully "bambooed" to match. Seat upholstered in a faded floral chintz, likely a later reupholstery.
Faux bamboo furniture flourished in the 1870s–90s as part of the Aesthetic Movement's embrace of Japanese and exotic motifs following the opening of trade with Japan — a fashion for "bamboo" rooms and Turkish corners that English and American cabinet shops answered in solid, stained hardwood rather than the real (and far more fragile) material. Unmarked pieces like this one were produced in volume for the middle-class parlor trade, though the best examples, like the trellis-and-roundel back here, show real design ambition within a modest form.
To purchase, email us at concierge@flamingoestate.mom. Local pickup in LA is available, or select standard shipping with insurance included with invoicing.
This chair, purchased at auction by Richard Christiansen during the early years of Flamingo Estate, features a turned hardwood frame carved and finished to mimic bamboo, down to the ring-turned joints and knuckle nodes at every junction. The back combines a diagonal brace set with four turned disc-and-ring roundels — a trellis motif borrowed from Anglo-Japanese lattice work — with turned ball finials and small pendant turnings at the crest. Splayed, ring-turned legs joined by an H-stretcher, fully "bambooed" to match. Seat upholstered in a faded floral chintz, likely a later reupholstery.
Faux bamboo furniture flourished in the 1870s–90s as part of the Aesthetic Movement's embrace of Japanese and exotic motifs following the opening of trade with Japan — a fashion for "bamboo" rooms and Turkish corners that English and American cabinet shops answered in solid, stained hardwood rather than the real (and far more fragile) material. Unmarked pieces like this one were produced in volume for the middle-class parlor trade, though the best examples, like the trellis-and-roundel back here, show real design ambition within a modest form.
To purchase, email us at concierge@flamingoestate.mom. Local pickup in LA is available, or select standard shipping with insurance included with invoicing.
Victorian Faux Bamboo Side Chair, Aesthetic Movement, circa 1880
