Page 164 - Bonhams Chinese Works of Art December 2014
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A rare pair of root wood armchairs
19th century
The massive chairs constructed entirely from natural rootwood components acting as the
supports, back an armrests, the surface well worn with good patina.
39in (99.2cm) high
$40,000 - 60,000
See Nancy Berliner’s essay in The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden
City, Peabody Essex Museum and Yale University Press, 2010, plates 8, 9, 10 and 12, and
page 96 where she notes that from Song times, this furniture was the preferred choice for
religious figures and ascetics, symbolizing a lack of attachment to earthly goods, and was later
adopted by Ming period literature. The Qianlong emperor chose a suite of rootwood furniture
for the Xishangting ‘suiting his bent for inner cultivation’ and had his portrait painted in a
rootwood chair.
For a luohanchuang, 18th/19th century, sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Fine Asian Works
of Art, December 20, 2011, lot 8259.
162 | BONHAMS
