Lot Essay
For a discussion of this chair shape, see R.H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch'ing Dynasty, New York, 1971, pp. 86-87, and Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 43-45. Examples of this popular form in huanghuali include a pair with carved ruyi heads on the splats, illustrated by Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts in Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 56, no. 26, and later sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 1996, lot 99, and a pair carved with ruyi heads on the splats and mounted with metal hardware, formerly in the Lai Family Collection, and sold at Christie's New York, 17 September 2015, lot 901.