Pair of 16th century French walnut Chimeras, vigorously carved with cut insets where the original seat would have been. Would make an imposing pier table or bench.
c. 1550
The Chimera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head, and was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling.
Height39.00 inch(99.1 cm)
Width16.00 inch(40.6 cm)
Ref No. 6598