TWO HUANGHUALI SOUTHERN OFFICIAL'S HAT ARMCHAIRS, NANGUANMAOYI
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
TWO HUANGHUALI SOUTHERN OFFICIAL'S HAT ARMCHAIRS, NANGUANMAOYI

18TH CENTURY

Details
TWO HUANGHUALI SOUTHERN OFFICIAL'S HAT ARMCHAIRS, NANGUANMAOYI
18TH CENTURY
Each with a wide shaped crestrail and headrest above a bowed backsplat continuing to the round backposts, each serpentine armrest curving forward and joining to form the front legs through the seat frame, with a hard cane seat, the legs framed by straight, beaded flange brackets with box stretchers above the plain footrest
46 and 45¼ in. (116.8 and 114.9 cm.) high, 24 and 23¾ in. (61 and 60.3 cm.) wide, 18 1/8 and 17 in. (46.1 and 43.2 cm.) deep (2)
Provenance
Collection of Dickson Reck, purchased in the 1930s or 1940s.

Lot Essay

See C. Clunas, Chinese Furniture, London, 1988, pp. 22-3, for a discussion on the development and construction of the southern official's hat armchair, where the author notes that such high chairs "have retained to this century in Chinese culture something of the connotations of status and authority with which their origins were associated".

Many chairs of this form may be found in public and private collections, and as with horseshoeback armchairs, the examples differ in the amount of carved decoration on the splat and aprons. A chair of this type, with plain splat and uncarved apron, is illustrated by R.H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 1971, pp. 112-3, figs. 5 and 5a.

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