Nairobi workshop (1950s–1970s)
Lounge chair, c. 1965
Teak and woven cane
78 × 68 × 80 cm
Estimate KES 140,000–200,000
Bidding
Bidding opens
Today at 20:30
Opening bid KES 70,000. This lot closes today at 21:06, unless a late bid extends it.
About the work
A low lounge chair with a sloping cane back and seat in a slender teak frame, its arms ending in flat, rounded paddles. One of a group made for a guest house in Muthaiga and kept together until 2019.
Condition
Good. The cane has been rewoven. Some fading to the teak.
Provenance
A guest house, Muthaiga; private collection, Nairobi.
The artist
In the years either side of independence, a handful of joinery workshops in Nairobi's Industrial Area made modern furniture in teak, mahogany and cane for new houses, offices and hotels. Few pieces were marked, and makers are rarely known, but the best of them are made as carefully as anything of their time.
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