17TH-18TH CENTURY

The present pair of stools is distinguished by the elegant, cusped aprons, sometimes referred to as 'horse-belly' aprons. A related pair of huanghuali stools of similar proportions with beaded 'horse-belly' aprons, formerly in the collection of Alice Boney, is illustrated by R. H. Ellsworth, Classical Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch'ing Dynasties, New York, 1971, p. 203, no. 115, and another pair constructed with plain 'horse-belly' aprons is illustrated by R. Jacobsen and N. Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, p. 38, no. 2. A pair of 17th-century huanghuali stools with beaded, cusped aprons illustrated in MD Flacks Ltd., Classical Chinese Furniture IV, Spring 2001, New York, p. 10, no. 5, was later sold at Christie’s New York, 22-23 March 2018, lot 963.