Page 138 - SOTHEBYS MARCH 18 AND 19 2025

Characterized by its clean lines, this rare and joined to the frame above with two short vertical struts; In
sophisticated pair of huanghuali armchairs evinces many Classical Chinese Furniture from Weiyang, London, 2017,
of the most cherished features of late Ming furniture. The the author Zhang Jinhua postulates that this openwork
overall simplicity of form is belied by the ingenuity of its humpback stretcher joined with vertical struts is a regional
construction, and the interplay between the straight lines variation developed in the Weiyang region of what is today
of its design and the rounded members of the crestrail and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, one of the many cities near
posts is characteristic of the refined furniture aesthetic of the mouth of the Yangtze River delta that was responsible
the period. for much of the artistic output of China during Ming dynasty.
The short vertical posts supporting the armrests are
This form of chair is often referred to by Chinese furniture slightly tapered towards the top, a feature Wang Shixiang
connoisseurs as a sichutou guanmaoyi (‘four-ends-extended’ charmingly calls a haoziyi (‘rat tail’). Metal mounts at the
‘official’s hat’ armchair), due to ends of the crestrail and joints of the larger members and at the four corners of the
the armrests extending beyond the back and front posts, seat frame add to the scholarly aesthetic.
respectively. While the extended crestrail and armrests
likely trace their origins to more vernacular forms of Chinese Compare the present pair of chairs with a very closely
furniture, by the Ming dynasty, the aesthetic had become related single chair, but in tieliumu, in the collection of
fully integrated into the literati taste. Indeed, the broad the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wang Shixiang,
sweep of the extended crestrail in particular conveyed Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1989,
prestige for its sitter; such chairs were often reserved for the vol. II, p. 43, cat. no. A69; the illustrated example has the
highest ranked figures at any given gathering. same humpback stretcher with vertical struts, but has a hard
wood seat rather than the mat seat found on the current
The form of the present chairs in particular is distinguished pair. Compare another single chair, also with a hard wood
by the straight members of nearly all of its component seat and with simpler aprons below the seat frame but with
parts, eschewing the ‘yokeback’ crestrail seen in most similarly straight members, in the collection of the Tsinghua
other sichutou guanmaoyi. Apart from the slight arc of the University Art Museum, illustrated on the Museum’s website
back splat, the only curve found in the whole form is on the (accession no. 201605); and another related pair sold in
humpback stretchers beneath the seat frame, which are
these rooms, 17th-18th March 2015, lot 204.

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