With its chinoiserie lacquer decoration, mother-of-pearl inlay, and fantastical vegetal-form arms and legs, this imposing armchair clearly hails from a Venetian workshop. Mother-of-pearl inlay was often used in Venice to further embellish lacquered or painted furniture and the material can be found incorporated in an array of items, such two mirrors illustrated C. Santini, Mille Mobili Veneti, Modena, 2002, pp. 245-246. The audaciously exaggerated legs and arms also indicate Venetian origin. For two giltwood armchairs with similar qualities, see ibid. p. 199. This chair belongs to a small group of comparable pieces that probably all originate in the same workshop. Other known pieces of this group include a cabinet on stand in the Ca’ Rezzonico, see G. Mariacher, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, 1967, no. 88, an almost identical armchair in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, illustrated A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Vol. I, Milan, 1986, p. 334, fig. 711, and a footstool at Longleat House, Wiltshire. A pier table and four pairs of armchairs were sold from the Venice collection of Count and Countess Volpi di Misurata at Sotheby's, Paris, 28 February 2024, lots 58-62 (the table achieving €44,450 and the four pairs of chairs achieving €63,500, €63,500, €95,250 and €88,900). A further armchair, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. 4256:1, 2-1856) bears a similar design, but is executed in carved walnut and not japanned.