Page 48 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

The present pair of yokeback armchairs displays a Closely related huanghuali armchairs can be found in a
particularly harmonious and stately interaction between number of museums and private collections; for example
the sturdy rectilinear frame and the long, sinuous posts and see a pair in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
splat - the interplay of rounded and straight lines is enhanced City (accession nos 64-4/13A and 64-4/13B), one of
by wide swathes of space, punctuating the elegant symmetry them illustrated in Orientations: Special Issue for the
of the slender circular members. Called guanmaoyi or ‘official Chinese Art Collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of
hat-shaped chairs’, the name derived from the resemblance Art, vol. 39, November-December 2008, p. 63, fig. 12; a
of the undulating crest rail to the winged hat worn as formal pair of similar armchairs with shaped aprons illustrated
attire by Ming officials, these armchairs are among the most in Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical
iconic forms of classical Chinese furniture. Ming and Qing Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
dynasty woodblock prints reveal that on special occasions, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 8, pp 50-51; and an armchair in the
a colorful textile would have been draped over the crest Palace Museum, Beijing, included in The Palace Museum
rail (cleverly secured by the graceful, upturned ends) as Collection. A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace
illustrated in the Wanli (1573-1620) edition of Yangzheng Furniture, vol. 1, Beijing, 2007, p. 30, fig. 13, where it
Tujie / Illustrated Book of Education Legends, also included in is mentioned that the style of this yokeback armchair
Grace Wu, The Best of the Best. The MQJ Collection of Ming was especially popular in Northern China. Two further
Furniture, vol. 1, Beijing, 2017, p. 158. examples of varying details, in the Palace Museum, are
illustrated ibid., figs 78-79, attributed to the Ming dynasty.
Guanmaoyi were regarded as potent symbols of
sophistication and high social standing. The notable height of Two similar examples recently sold in our Hong Kong
the present example conveys not only the additional expense rooms; an armchair from the collection of Sir Joseph
of material and skilled labor but the status of its owner Hotung, 8th October 2022, lot 23 and a pair with
and, by extension, the importance of any honored guests truncated ends at the arm rests and crest rail, 9th
fortunate enough to be seated on them. The classical text Lu October 2022, lot 115. See also a similar pair sold in our
Ban jing (Manuscript of Lu Ban), a 15th century carpenter’s London rooms, 7th October 2012, lot 281; a pair, from the
manual, gives specifications for these chairs and describes St. Matthias Church of the Diocese of British Columbia,
the joinery as the embodiment of the finest examples of The Anglican Church of Canada, sold in these rooms,
classical Chinese furniture. The strikingly modern, seemingly 11-12th September 2012, lot 218; and a pair, formerly in
simple design of the present pair uses only four upright the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, was sold at
posts, each passing through the rectangular seat frame, Christie’s New York, 19th September 1996, lot 85.
ingeniously joined, and fortified by a shaped apron featuring
the only section of decorative carving and stretchers. The Rev. Henry Loomis (1839-1920), a Presbyterian
missionary and great ‘friend of the East,’ was one of the
Craig Clunas in Chinese Furniture, London, 1988, p. 20, first in generations of family members who, together with
describes armchairs of this type as being made in pairs, a his wife, Jane (née Greene, 1848-1920), formed a close
nod to the use of symmetry in Chinese room arrangements. relationship with the people and cultures of East Asia. In
In addition to pairs prominently placed in reception halls, 1872, shortly after he and Jane were married, the couple
Ming and Qing period illustrations show them used at dining left for Yokohama, Japan in order to begin their lives
tables and alongside a writing table in scholar’s studios. A abroad. Thus, the beginnings of the Greene-Loomis family
woodblock print in the 1616 edition of The Golden Lotus (Jin attachment to Asia had begun. Born into a family that had
Ping Mei) included ibid., p. 22, fig. 8, affirms the function, already established strong ties to Japan, Henry and Jane’s
location, and significance of yokeback armchairs, depicting son Evarts Greene Loomis Sr. (1897-1971), together with his
a dining scene with the main character and his wife seated wife, Amy (née Brown, 1881-1980), continued their family’s
on guanmaoyi while the secondary wives and concubines affections for and appreciation of Asia by collecting art and
are relegated to stools. For further discussion on the basic artifacts from the region, including the present lot during
model and decorative vocabulary of these armchairs see their trip to China between 1930-1931.
Curtis Evarts, ‘From Ornate to Unadorned’, Journal of the
Chinese Classical Furniture Society, Spring 1993, pp 24-33.

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