CHINA, 17TH CENTURY

Marble furniture played an integral role in traditional Chinese architecture and garden design. Sculptural and durable, marble furniture graced gardens and courtyards and replaced wood furniture that would have had to have been moved outside for gatherings. A Ming-dynasty woodblock illustration of A Dream of Cherries captures the elegant effect of stone furniture within a landscaped terraced garden. Central to the image are a set of four stone stools, accurately detailed with carved bosses encircling the rims, set around an oversized stone table upon which sits several gaming boards. Stone furniture supported the cultivated lifestyle of leisure activities embraced by the Ming elite.

This extraordinary and boldly carved stool is not only impressive for its massive size but also for the finesse and depth of carving. Carved with protruding handles on either side, formed as fierce demon-masks with long horns, the stools are further carved with octofoil cartouches enclosing two writhing dragons, all set against a ground of dense, intertwined foliate scroll. The top is carved in low relief with a geometric pattern that simulates the sumptuous brocaded textiles of the time, which were sometimes placed on stone furniture to add comfort and warmth. An identical pair of white marble stools was sold at Christie’s New York, 24 March 2023, lot 1144.