Page 24 - Bonhams Sept 2016 CHINESE Furniture

6008 W Provenance
A PAIR OF HUANGHUALI LOW BACK ARM CHAIRS, MEIGUIYI Grace Wu Bruce, purchased 2 April 1999.
17th/18th century
Each rounded corner top rail and arm rests hidden mortise and Compare to similar examples in Chen Zenghui op. cit., no 17 and
tenoned to the stiles which run through the seat to become the front Clunas, no. 30.
and back legs, the back apron elegantly carved with key fret and
beaded borders resting on a horizontal stretcher tenoned to the back Robert Jacobson writes that low back arm chairs had their antecedent
rails and front posts and to the seat by two pillar-form struts, the in the Song period with chairs made from one piece of bamboo where
seat of standard mitre, mortise-and-tenon construction with exposed the back and side panels shared the same height. He notes that the
tenons on the sides and drilled for a soft seat with two transverse term meiguiyi has a feminine association in North China, while this form
stretchers and tongue and grooved and butt-joined to the shaped and has been called wenyi on the central coast. See Robert D. Jacobsen
beaded apron extending down the sides of the front rails and resting with Nick Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis
on the horizontal foot rest, the plain, high u-shaped side and back Institute of Art. Chicago: Paragon Publishing, 1999, no. 15, 16, 17
aprons set above the stepped stretchers with exposed tenons. and 18, commentary on page 66. See also Sarah Handler. “Roses,
35 x 23 3/8 x 17 7/8in and 35 1/4 x 23 3/8 x 17 7/8in (88.8 x 59.3 x bamboo and the Lowback Armchair,” Orientations, Vol 29, No.7, July/
45.5cm and 89.4 x 59.3 x 45.5cm) August 1998.

US$100,000 - 150,000 For related examples see, Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, Sale 12555, Lot
3249, 1 June, 2016 and 7 October, 2015, the Dr. S Y Yip Collection,
十七或十八世紀 黃花梨玫瑰椅 lot 128; see as well an example with a more elaborate backsplat
offered as lot 3367 in Guardian’s sale of 21 May 2011.

22 | BONHAMS