Chair & Other Piece

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These two pieces were given to me by my grandmother. They were her second husbands and his family didn't take them after he passed. She had no use for them so she let me have them. I know he did travel a lot but I have no idea where these are from. It's a long shot by the style of these that I thought someone on this site might be able to help me. I have never been able to find anything on either piece as to who even made them. First the chair then the second item that i'm not even sure what it is.

Chair







Other Item







I want to apologize for the dust but I didn't want to mess with them to much so I just used a dry cloth to clean them up a little bit. Any thoughts on where they might have come from or what the second item is would be great.

[D&b antiques]

The dust is fine. I prefer to examine american furniture. but your furniture appears to be FRENCH. from the Directoire time frame. circa 1795 to 1799.

please tell us your not leaveing it behind.

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Oh no never would think about leaving them behind  . Just on my search for as much information as I can find out about them since I never got to ask him about them when he was around.

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Wow that Amy did spam the board. 

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Hi everyone it's been awhile. Can anyone give me any clue on what the second piece may be? Are they for sure French in origin?

this picture is from the underneath of the chair.

[wendy177]

Your first piece looks like a Japanese koi fish turning into a dragon (head) -
The koi fish in Japanese folklore represents the overcoming of obstacles, because the koi fish travels up the yellow river and when it comes to the end of the river it transforms into the dragon; thus overcoming the adversity represented by the strong river to fulfill its own destiny. This is what it looks like to me But furniture is not my area.

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Thanks Wendy that's really interesting.

Does anyone have even half a clue what the second piece is? I don't really understand the lid part of it. What would you put inside you can't even really put a set of keys inside without the lid not sitting correctly.

[KC]

Depending on age...lots of these items have been imported into the US from China!!!!  They are masters of duplication of Asian pieces!!!!

You will also see imports of like items from Indonesia and Philippines from the 50's onward!