17TH CENTURY

The ‘official’s hat’ or yokeback armchair, particularly the ‘four corners-exposed’ type of the present example, is among the most powerful and monumental forms of classical Chinese furniture. The present chair is distinguished by its impressive height, measuring just over 47 inches or 120 cm. high, and its elegant, imposing form. A pair of huanghuali ‘Official’s hat’ armchairs with rounded ends, measuring 48 inches or 122 cm. tall, illustrated in R. D. Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999, pp. 50-51, no. 8., appear to be among the tallest chairs recorded. A shorter huanghuali ‘Official’s hat’ armchair with recessed, curving front posts, was sold at Christie’s New York, The Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth: Part I, 17 March 2015, lot 50.

The present chair appears to belong to the pair illustrated in G. Ecke in Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, 1962, pl. 102, no. 80. (Fig.1) Similar to the illustrated chair, the present chair has the same imposing proportions and fine workmanship, seen in the gently rounded corners of the extending ends and the delicate floral carving at the mid-spandrel. Further, the distinct grain pattern is an almost exact match, suggesting that the back splat of the present chair was cut from the same section of wood as the illustrated chair. The pair from Ecke’s book, of which only one is illustrated, and the discovery of this third chair of almost identical design, material, and proportion suggests the existence of a fourth chair, as important chairs were commissioned in sets of four.