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189
A ‘HUANGHUALI’ HORSESHOE-BACK 十七世紀 黃花梨圈椅
ARMCHAIR (QUANYI), 17TH CENTURY
Height 39 in., 99.1 cm; Width 26 in., 66 cm; Depth 26½ in., 來源
67.3 cm 紐約蘇富比1998年9月17日，編號303

PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s New York, 17th September 1998, lot 303.
Of elegant rounded form, this chair is characteristic of one
of the most important and beloved designs in the history
of Chinese furniture. Chairs of this rounded design, known
as quanyi (lit. ‘circle chairs’) in Chinese, were particularly
popular during the Ming dynasty when they were used as
seats of honor and sedan chairs for wealthy households.
A pottery model of a horseshoe-back chair at the rear of a
sixty-six piece funeral procession from a Ming dynasty tomb
is now held in the lobby of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated
in Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of
Chinese Art, San Francisco 1983, no. 115.
This rounded design was originally derived from bamboo
construction techniques, where pliable lengths of bamboo
were bent into a U-shape and bound together by natural
fibers. Eventually carpenters turned to hardwood to further
improve the design with its endurance, vibrant coloring
and attractive grain pattern accentuated by the chair’s
rounded form. To achieve a similarly sinuous result from the
rigid hardwood, artisans developed sophisticated joinery
techniques, including the elaborate ‘overlapping pressure pin
scarf joint’ which joined slightly curved interlocking elements
to form the single continuous line of the crestrail.
◉ $ 50,000-70,000

182 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744 A COLLECTING JOURNEY: THE JANE AND LEOPOLD SWERGOLD COLLECTION 183