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Lot Essay
A related single zitan stool of similar design, formerly in the collection of Wang Shixiang, but set with double vertical posts between the humpback stretcher and the underside of the seat frame and retaining its bronze feet is illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Classic Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Chicago, 1986, p. 61, no. 14. A pair of jichimu stools now on exhibit in the Astor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and also illustrated by Robert Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1970, pl. 105, p. 196, are of comparable height to the present pair (fig. 1). The jichimu pair have a square hole in the base of the leg suggesting the presence of a locating mortise for a bronze foot which is now missing. Another pair of jichimu stools constructed en suite with the pair at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but with a straight turned leg with ball feet above square chicks, were sold at Sotheby’s New York, 24 March 1998, lot 734 and is now in the John C. Weber collection.
Interestingly, all the published examples have one very rare and unusual feature found in the double soft-matted seats. The seat frame is drilled to accommodate the top matting seat that is woven through these drill holes and finished with a trimming strip. This technique is repeated on the underside obscuring what would be the untidy finish of the matting seat and also, more impressively, finished with its own trimming strips. It appears to be the only group of stools that exhibit this highly-sophisticated and very unusual technique for soft matting seats.
Interestingly, all the published examples have one very rare and unusual feature found in the double soft-matted seats. The seat frame is drilled to accommodate the top matting seat that is woven through these drill holes and finished with a trimming strip. This technique is repeated on the underside obscuring what would be the untidy finish of the matting seat and also, more impressively, finished with its own trimming strips. It appears to be the only group of stools that exhibit this highly-sophisticated and very unusual technique for soft matting seats.