Lot Essay
Wang Shixiang illustrates a similar drum stool from the Chengde Palace, Beijing in his article, ''Merits and Defects of Ming Furniture'', JCCFS, Spring 1992, p. 46, and suggests that the sixty bosses around the top and bottom frames are a reference to the sixty days and sixty years of the Chinese calendar and therefore a metaphor for "wholeness" a quality also imparted by the "unity and completeness of its shape". For another discussion of such stools see Yang Naiji, ''The Beauty of Perfect Roundness'', JCCFS, Summer 1993, p. 32 and fig. 1. The same example is also illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 29, no. A33
Compare, also, the pair of drum stools from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, illustrated by Sarah Handler, ''The Ubiquitous Stool'', JCCFS, Summer 1994, p. 18, fig. 24 and by Wang et al., Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, p. 40, no. 19 and sold in these rooms September 19, 1996, lot 42
Sarah Handler, ''The Revolution in Chinese Furniture: Moving from Mat to Chair", JCCFS, Winter 1990, pp. 25-42, discusses this example of the versatility of Chinese furniture. When the top panel is removed the stool doubles as a large vase stand
Compare, also, the pair of drum stools from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, illustrated by Sarah Handler, ''The Ubiquitous Stool'', JCCFS, Summer 1994, p. 18, fig. 24 and by Wang et al., Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, p. 40, no. 19 and sold in these rooms September 19, 1996, lot 42
Sarah Handler, ''The Revolution in Chinese Furniture: Moving from Mat to Chair", JCCFS, Winter 1990, pp. 25-42, discusses this example of the versatility of Chinese furniture. When the top panel is removed the stool doubles as a large vase stand