Page 104 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

581

PROPERTY FROM A MASSACHUSETTS COLLECTION

A PAIR OF ‘HUANGHUALI’
CONTINUOUS YOKEBACK
ARMCHAIRS
MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

each with an elegantly arched crestrail 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 book-matched
well- 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 at the top by front and
side humpback stretchers with cylindrical struts and
a plain spandreled apron at the back, and over the
feet a shaped footrest in front and by oval section
stretchers on the sides and back (2)
Height 44½ in., 113 cm; Width 23½ in., 59.7 cm;
Depth 18 in., 45.7 cm

PROVENANCE

Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong, 2006.

The restrained lines and minimal decoration serve to
heighten the statuesque proportions and rich luster
of the wood. The timber chosen for the matching
back splats has whorl patterns, showing huanghuali
wood at its best. The continuous yokeback armchair
is one of the most classic of the scholarly Ming
forms; a pair of similar armchairs 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, ibid, 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 a
similar but single chair in the Vok Collection, see
Nicholas Grindley, Pure Form: klassische Möbel aus
China / Pure Form: Classical Chinese Furniture Vok
Collection, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln,
Munich, 2004, pl. 10.

A similar pair but with plain aprons, from the Richard
Fabian Collection, was sold in these rooms, 15th
March 2016, lot 7; and a pair of taller armchairs from
the Collection of Dr. S.Y. Yip was sold in our Hong
Kong rooms, 7th October 2015, lot 111.

Ⴚ$ 150,000-250,000

2006