Page 6 - Fine Chinese Ceramics Sept 2016

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE NEW YORK COLLECTION

1202
A RARE HUANGHUALI ‘SOUTHERN OFFICIAL’S HAT’ ARMCHAIR,
NANGUANMAOYI
17TH-18TH CENTURY
The curved crest rail is supported on curved rear posts and a deeply curved back splat,
with unusual beaded spandrels where the crest rail meets the rear posts. The arms are
supported on slender standing stiles and terminate in the front posts, with similar beaded
spandrels where the arms meet the front posts. The mat seat is enclosed in the rounded
rectangular frame over continuous beaded aprons and spandrels, and is raised on legs of
round section joined by a foot rest in the front and stepped stretchers at the sides and back.
41æ in. (106 cm.) high, 21æ in. (55.2 cm.) wide, 21º in. (54 cm.) deep
$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE

Acquired in Paris in the 1930s and thence by descent.
The ‘southern oficial’s hat’ armchair difers from the oficial’s hat armchair in that its crest
rail continues into the back rails as opposed to extending beyond them. The present chair
has the added unusual feature of spandrels beneath the crest rail and below the arms. A
chair of this type is illustrated by Sarah Handler in Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese
Architecture, Berkeley, 2005, p. 117. Another example with a burl-inset backsplat, dated to
the 17th/early 18th century, is illustrated by M. Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture: a very
personal point of view, London, 2011, p. 50.
十七/十八世紀 黃花梨南官帽椅

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