Page 153 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY FROM A WEST COAST COLLECTION
~884
A LARGE HUANGHUALI SEDAN CHAIR BOX
17TH-18TH CENTURY
Of stepped construction, the cover opens to reveal the removeable tray, which is set between two fxed
rectangular compartments, above the large storage compartment. The box is ftted with huangtong corner
mounts, round lockplate, and cloud-form hasp.
5º in. (13.3 cm.) high, 29 in. (73.6 cm.) wide, 6Ω in. (16.5 cm.) deep

$15,000-25,000

PROVENANCE
Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong, 1991.
This portable box was designed to ft between the rails of an oficial’s sedan chair, to be easily removed
and taken inside. This standard form accommodated paper and scrolls in the central section, with
brushes and seals in the projecting ends. For a discussion of sedan chair boxes, see Grace Wu Bruce,
“Small Portable Treasures,” Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Autumn 1993, pp. 57-59.
A huanghuali sedan chair box of comparable size, formerly from the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Collection
and now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is illustrated in Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago, 1999,
p. 200-201. no. 74. Another example, formerly in the collection of the Museum of Classical Chinese
Furniture, Renaissance, California, was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 1996, lot 6. A third
one, from the Feng Wen Tang Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 2821.
十七/十八世紀 黃花梨轎箱

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