Page 226 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

Property from an Important American Private Collection
~1117
A VERY RARE PAIR OF DALI MARBLE-INSET for their natural markings and carefully polished to reveal evocative
HUANGHUALI 'SOUTHERN OFFICIAL'S HAT' and poetic scenes, the panels instantly transport the viewer to that
ARMCHAIRS contemplative place in nature that only the finest panels can convey.
Here is an everchanging scene of a landscape. The panel on the left
17TH-18TH CENTURY
could be a mountainous landscape, the sky alight with the setting sun,
36 in. ( 91.4 cm.) high, 21q in. ( 54.6 cm) wide, 16q in. ( 41.9 cm) deep and the panel on the right is wild and untamed, recalling a powerful
$120,000-180,000 storm or a turbulent sea. Wen Zhenheng, the late Ming arbiter of taste,
lauded the use of marble panels in Chinese furniture and praised
PROVENANCE:
them as the height of sophisticated taste among the literati and elite.
Oriental Art Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii, 18 January 1991.
An extremely rare pair of Dali marble-inset huanghuali continuous
horseshoe-back armchairs was sold at Christie’s New York, 23-24
美४重要私́珍藏 September 2021, lot 1003. Compare, also, a set of four Dali marble
十ˑ 十Ջˠ紀 黃花梨ณ૯理⊅南官帽椅ˏ對 huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs formerly in the collection
Ϝ源 of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, and illustrated by
Oriental Art Ltd., 檀香山, ૠ威夷, 1991年1月18日 Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of
Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 62-63,
no. 29.
The present pair of chairs is distinguished by the striking Dali marble
panels, unusual carved side points, and diminutive size. Chairs of this The pair is further distinguished by the elegantly carved side posts,
type, typically have either plain or simply carved back splats. A pair of carved to resemble lengths of bamboo issuing from a pear-shaped vase.
plain huanghuali ‘southern official’s hat’ armchairs of slightly larger The carved side post is a rare variation from the tapering curved side
size, and with dramatic downward curving arms, was sold at Christie’s posts most commonly seen on armchairs. This style of carved posts has
New York, 22-23 March 2018, lot 938. precedents in Ming-period folding horseshoe-back armchairs. A pair
of huanghuali 'official's hat' armchairs carved with phoenix and qilin,
Decorative stone panels were used in furniture and table screens to illustrated by Grace Wu in The Best of The Best: The MQJ Collection
add color and texture to furniture. Panels could be functional, such as of Ming Furniture, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2017, pp. 230-31 features this
on wine tables, or could be decorative, like on the present pair. Chosen distinctive style of carved side posts.

1118 NO LOT