Lot Essay
Compare another huanghuali example with undecorated baitong or brass mounts, formerly in the collections of Mr. Frederic Mueller and The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, and illustrated by Robert H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture, p. 88, col. pl. 26, sold in these rooms 29 November 1990, lot 395. Wu Tung, 'From Imported ''Nomadic Seat'' to Chinese Folding Armchair', JCCFS, Spring 1993, p. 38, fig. 1, illustrates a pair of similar folding chairs in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which have splats carved with a landscape. This design is repeated on a folding chair in the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena. A folding chair in the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, Hong Kong, with a ruyi medallion splat is illustrated by Robert H. Ellsworth et. al., Chinese Furniture, One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, pp. 66-7, no. 13. See, also, the folding chair formerly belonging to Wang Shixiang and now at the Shanghai Museum, with a carved pierced central splat, similar to the present example and depicting a qilin amidst cloud scrolls, illustrated on the cover of Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations, op. cit.
Another group of huanghuali horseshoeback armchairs, with C-curved splats, dragon spandrels and iron damascened fittings, include the one reportedly used by the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), acquired in China by George Crofts, de-accessioned by the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, sold in these rooms 19 September 1996, lot 50. Another is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and included in the exhibition, Beyond the Screen, and illustrated by Nancy Berliner in the Catalogue, no. 3, where she discusses the imperial use of such folding chairs. For the third example, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu bian; zhumu ya jiao qi (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Arts and Crafts; Objects of Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Horn), vol. 11, p. 127, pl. 152. A fourth example sold at Sotheby's, New York, 18 September 1996, lot 311 and is now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
For a full comparison of the folding armchair with others, see Sarah Handler, 'The Elegant Vagabond: The Chinese Folding Chair', Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations, pp. 146-152. See, also, Gustav Ecke, 'The Development of the Folding Chair: Notes on the History of the Form of the Eurasian Chair', JCCFS, Winter 1990, p. 11.
Another group of huanghuali horseshoeback armchairs, with C-curved splats, dragon spandrels and iron damascened fittings, include the one reportedly used by the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), acquired in China by George Crofts, de-accessioned by the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, sold in these rooms 19 September 1996, lot 50. Another is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and included in the exhibition, Beyond the Screen, and illustrated by Nancy Berliner in the Catalogue, no. 3, where she discusses the imperial use of such folding chairs. For the third example, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu bian; zhumu ya jiao qi (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Arts and Crafts; Objects of Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Horn), vol. 11, p. 127, pl. 152. A fourth example sold at Sotheby's, New York, 18 September 1996, lot 311 and is now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
For a full comparison of the folding armchair with others, see Sarah Handler, 'The Elegant Vagabond: The Chinese Folding Chair', Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations, pp. 146-152. See, also, Gustav Ecke, 'The Development of the Folding Chair: Notes on the History of the Form of the Eurasian Chair', JCCFS, Winter 1990, p. 11.