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While examples of horseshoe-back armchairs are readily known, one of the rarest variations of the form
is the continuous rail horseshoe-back armchair. The design of these very rare chairs was inspired by
bamboo furniture. The elegantly shaped crestrail and rounded members were carved to simulate the
bamboo furniture construction technique of bending long stalks of bamboo using steam or heat. The
abundance of bamboo made it popular among the lower classes, as a cost-efective and more easily
portable alternative to the more luxurious hardwood furniture. Known bamboo-inspired examples in
huanghuali include a pair formerly in the Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, sold at Christie’s New York,
17 March 2015, lot 47 and a single example formerly in the Flacks Family Collection, sold at Christie’s
New York, 16 September 2016, lot 1105 and illustrated by M. Flacks in Classical Chinese Furniture: A Very
Personal Point of View, London, 2011, pp. 59-63.
Refer to Ronald W. Longsdorf, “Chinese Bamboo Furniture, Its Infuence on Hardwood Furniture
Design,” Orientations, January 1994, pp.76-83, where the author discusses the features of bamboo
furniture carried over to hardwood forms, such as rounded members, ‘wrap-around’ stretchers, ‘stacked’
stretchers and the use of closely placed vertical struts.
A pair of zitan continuous horseshoe-back armchairs of similar construction and design are illustrated
by My Humble House, Zitan, The Most Noble Hardwood, Taiwan, 1996, pp. 42-3. Two pairs of zitan
continuous horseshoe-back armchairs are illustrated by R. H. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: One
Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 80-1, no. 20
and vol. II, pp. 38-9, no. 14.

(another view)

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