18TH CENTURY

The form of the present chairs is widely known, with several variants, ranging from those with straight lines, which are relatively unadorned, to elaborately carved examples, such as the pair of huanghuali chairs from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, illustrated by R.H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, pp. 84-5, no. 22. However, perhaps the closest example to the present pair is the huanghuali chair in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ming Qing Guting Jiaju Da Guan, Beijing, 2006, p. 125, no. 106, where it is dated to the Ming dynasty. The only difference between the two appears to be the addition of shaped aprons beneath the arm rails on the Palace Museum example, which are absent on the present pair.