Page 44 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

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There is little doubt that zitan was reserved for the most important thrones, The highly refned quality of the carving and the raw materials used in the
as zitan had become a very expensive commodity by the early Qing period, construction of this throne point towards this being a product of the Muzuo
as a result of excessive logging throughout the Ming dynasty. The wood’s (Wood workshop) of the Zaobanchu (Imperial Palace workshops).The style
scarcity was compounded by the fact that the trees themselves are slow and intricacy of the carving, however, suggest that the present throne could
growing and require centuries to fully mature into usable material. Although also have been made in Guangdong as a tribute to the Imperial Court or by
local sources of zitan exist in the southern provinces of Yunnan, Guangdong craftsmen from Guangdong working in the Zaobanchu. The style of carving is
and Guangxi, much of the material was imported from Southeast Asia. As closely comparable to that found on a pair of zitan compound cabinets in the
an imported commodity, its use was scrupulously monitored and carefully Yangxin dian, the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City, illustrated
restricted at the Imperial workshops. by Yang Boda in Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Hong Kong,
1987, p. 38, fg. 14, where the author describes them as being produced in the
Thrones required raw material of enormous girth to permit the construction Guangdong Workshop. Interestingly, the lower panels of the cabinets feature
of the rectangular seat and shaping of the sturdy protruding curve of the a shou character roundel that is also found in the center of the present
legs from a single piece of timber. From its massive size, it is evident that throne’s back panel. Yang Boda goes on to discuss the records of furniture
no expense was spared in the production of this throne. The generous use produced in Guangdong for the court, which specifcally include a substantial
of large pieces of solid zitan also helps to date the throne to the late 18th number of zitan thrones. He notes that the majority of furniture tributes seem
or early 19th century, since by the mid-late 19th century, supplies were so to have been presented in the middle of the Qianlong reign, with numbers
scarce that even Imperial furniture was made of much smaller sections of increasing substantially in the 10th year of the Qianlong reign (1746) and
timber and often applied as a veneer over another wood. diminishing again markedly by the 59th year of the reign (1795).

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