Page 225 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

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PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTION
A ‘HUANGHUALI’ CONTINUOUS
YOKEBACK ARMCHAIR,
NANGUANMAOYI
MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
with an elegantly arched crestrail ß attened
in the center and curving down to join the
slightly backward sloping rear posts continuing
through the frame to form the back legs, and
a well-Þ gured wide rectangular S-shaped
splat tenoned to the underside of the yoke
and into the back rail of the seat frame, the
serpentine arms pipe-jointed to shaped front
posts, the rectangular seat frame, with molded
edge, enclosing a soft-mat seat supported
underneath by a pair of bowed stretchers, the
legs joined by plain spandreled aprons and
ascending height stretchers
Height 48 in., 121.9 cm; Width 23¾ in., 60.3 cm;
Depth 18 in., 45.7 cm

PROVENANCE
M.D. Flacks, London.
The restrained lines and minimal decoration
serve to heighten the statuesque proportions
and rich luster of the wood. The timber
chosen for its lively whorl patterns, showing
huanghuali wood at its best. The continuous
yokeback armchair is one of the most classic
of the scholarly Ming forms; a similar armchair
with shaped aprons is illustrated in Robert
D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical
Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute
of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 9. In discussing
the form, the authors conjecture that the
inspiration for the continuous top and arm rails
might be found in bent bamboo construction
popular in the Song and Ming dynasties and
cite an illustration of the Wanli period Kunqu
opera The Tale of the Jade Hairpin showing a
pair of speckled bamboo tall back chairs with
continuous crestrails. In addition, pottery
examples of this form were found in the tomb
of Pan Yunzheng dated to 1589, op.cit., p. 52. A
pair with inlaid decoration is illustrated in Nancy
Berliner, Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture
of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, 1996, p. 111. For another
similar chair, see Nicholas Grindley, Pure Form:
Classical Chinese Furniture Vok Collection,
Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln, Munich,
2004, pl. 10.
A pair of similar form, from the Richard Fabian
Collection, was sold in these rooms, 15th March
2016, lot 7; another from the collection of Dr.
S.Y. Yip was sold in our Hong Kong rooms,
7th October 2015, lot 111; and a related pair
with di# erent aprons sold in these rooms, 15th
March 2017, lot 581.
Ⴚ $ 80,000-120,000
㖶⋩ᶫᶾ䲨ġġġ湫剙㡐⋿⭀ⷥ㢭
Ը๕
MįġDįġFlacks炻ΐ㔎

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