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PROPERTY FROM A NORTH AMERICAN COLLECTION Huanghuali yokeback armchairs of this type are of striking
modernity in the simplicity and balance of their lines. They
A ‘HUANGHUALI’ YOKEBACK ARMCHAIR are called guanmao yi or ‘o/ cial’s hat-shaped chairs’, the
(SICHUTOU GUANMAOYI)
name derived from its resemblance to the winged hat that
MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY was part of the formal attire of the Ming o/ cials. They were
regarded as high chairs and retained a connotation of status
well proportioned, an elegantly sinuous crestrail terminating and authority associated with the elite gentry in Chinese
in upswept rounded ends surmounting a pair of curved
society. The classical text Lu Ban jing (Manuscript of Lu Ban),
cylindrical stiles tenoned into the underside of the shaped
a 15th century carpenter’s manual, gives speci" cations for
yoke and continuing through the seat frame forming the back
these chairs and describes the joinery as the embodiment and
legs, the wide, plain S-curved back splat tongue-and-grooved " ne example of Chinese furniture. They are special because
into the top rail and the back of the seat frame, the outward
only four pieces of wood are used for the four verticals of the
curving arms supported by S-form braces and mortise-and-
front legs and front arm-posts, the back legs and back posts,
tenoned and similarly S-shaped recessed posts, small shaped
with each vertical passing through the frame of the seat.
spandrels tongue-and-grooved to the underside of the arms They also re! ect the trend in Chinese furniture manufacture,
where they meet the posts, the hard-seat frame of standard
from the 15th century to the 19th century, when the technical
miter, mortise and tenon construction, supported by two
expedients in holding a piece together became less evident.
transverse braces underneath, the plain front apron with long
! ange brackets butt-joined to the underside of the seat and Ming and Qing period literature illustrations characteristically
tongue-and-grooved into the legs, the side and back with plain show armchairs of this form used at dinner tables, in reception
spandreled aprons, the half-rounded legs joined by a footrail halls for guests and at the writing table in the scholar’s studio.
in front and rounded side and back stretchers, a plain shaped For example, see a woodblock print in the 1616 edition of The
apron below the footrest Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) showing the main male character
Height 46⅝ in., 118.5 cm; Width 23 in., 58.4 cm; Depth 19 in., and his principal wife seated on a guanmao yi while dining
48.3 cm with his secondary wives and concubines seated on stools,
illustrated in Craig Clunas, ‘The Novel Jin Ping Mei as a Source
PROVENANCE for the Study of Ming Furniture’, Chinese Furniture Selected
Sotheby’s New York, 18th-19th October 1990, lot 565. Articles from Orientations 1984-2003, Hong Kong, 2004, " g.
8, p. 118. For a general discussion on the basic model and
Ⴚ $ 150,000-250,000 decorative vocabulary of these armchairs see Curtis Evarts,
‘From Ornate to Unadorned’, Journal of the Chinese Classical
׼ɤɖ˰ߏ රڀૣ̬̈᎘֜సಉ
Furniture Society, Spring, 1993, pp. 24-33.
Ը๕
A yokeback armchair with rounded ends, a plain serpentine
ॲߒᘽబˢ1990ϋ10˜18Ї19˚dᇜ໮565 splat and set back arm posts similar to the present example
was sold in these rooms 20th March 2012, lot 127. A related
pair from the Robert H. Ellsworth collection was sold at
Christie’s New York, 18th March 2015, lot 121. Another related
pair of undecorated chairs was sold in our London rooms,
7th November 2012, lot 281. A further pair, also 17th century
and closely related to the present example, was sold in these
rooms, 11th September 2012, lot 218. A related armchair in
the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in The Complete
Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum,
Chair, vol. 4, Beijing, 2016, pp. 122-123.

170 SOTHEBY’S