A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple overhanging roofs, originating in Asia, where it was built for religious purposes, especially within Buddhist temple complexes in China, Japan, Korea and other countries. Pagodas often stand several storeys high, with each roof turned up at the eaves and the whole crowned by a spire or finial.
In Europe, the pagoda became one of the most recognisable symbols of chinoiserie, the eighteenth-century fashion for fanciful Eastern design. Sir William Chambers, who had visited China, built the Great Pagoda at Kew in the early 1760s, and pagodas appeared in landscape gardens, garden pavilions and fanciful decorations. Thomas Chippendale's pattern book included designs with pagoda-shaped crestings, and pagoda motifs appear on cabinets, bookcases, mirrors, beds, clocks, wallpapers, textiles and porcelain. The Regency period continued the fashion, as at the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. In furniture, the term pagoda top describes a curved, stepped cresting resembling a pagoda roof. Collectors look for crisp carving, original gilding or lacquer, and authentic period work rather than later revival pieces. Today, pagoda motifs remain popular in decorative schemes, garden ornaments and lighting, adding playful elegance and a hint of the exotic.
