A RARE HUANGHUALI MEDITATION PLATFORM, CHANCHUANG

Details

A RARE HUANGHUALI MEDITATION PLATFORM, CHANCHUANG
17TH CENTURY

The soft-mat seat within a rectangular frame with 'ice-plate' edge, supported by slender, round legs joined by plain stretchers and a beaded apron, the beading continuing around and onto the apron-head spandrels as crisply carved, bifurcated tendrils with small scrolling hooks on the inner edges, one stretcher replaced
18 7/8 in. (48cm.) high, 44 1/8in. (112cm.) wide, 34¼in. (87cm.) deep

Literature

Sarah Handler, "Life on a Platform", JCCFS, Autumn 1993, p. 17, fig. 27
Wang et al., Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, p. 4, no. 2

Lot Essay

A closely related huanghuali meditation platform with higher stretchers and oval struts is in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Piccus, Hong Kong, and illustrated by Curtis Evarts in "Classical Chinese Furniture in the Piccus Collection", JCCFS, Autumn 1992, p. 10, fig. 9

According to Sarah Handler, "Life on a Platform", JCCFS, Autumn 1993, pp. 4-20, this kind of platform is a later "chair-level form of the early square, single-person seats seen in Han dynasty depictions"