.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Although Chinese chairs are traditionally fitted with a footrest stretcher, a separate footstool was more comfortable, and in furniture arrangements, the placement of a single footstool often distinguished the highest ranked person. The beneficial use of the foot stool was described by Wen Zhenheng during the late Ming period, "Moving the feet back and forth over the rollers excites the vital energies (jingqi) to bubble upward like a fountain."
Compare a smaller huanghuali example with four rollers now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (R.D. Jacobsen, Catalogue, pp. 174-175, cat. 62), sold at Christie's, New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September, 1996, lot 27.
Compare a smaller huanghuali example with four rollers now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (R.D. Jacobsen, Catalogue, pp. 174-175, cat. 62), sold at Christie's, New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September, 1996, lot 27.