Lot 948. A rare pair of huanghuali square cabriole-leg stools, 17th-18th century; 20 ¾ in. (52.7 cm.) high, 18 ¾ in. (47.6 cm.) square. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 432,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Each has a mat seat set in the square frame above a narrow waist and shaped, beaded aprons. The whole is raised on elegant, beaded cabriole legs joined by humpback stretchers and terminating in scroll feet.

Provenance: Chan Shing Kee, Hong Kong, November 1994.

Property from the Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection.

Literature: V. Bower, S. Handler and J. Burris, Brush Clay Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection of Chinese Art, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, 2008, p. 51, fig. 22.

Exhibited: Cincinnati, Taft Museum of Art, Brush Clay Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection of Chinese Art, 7 November 2008 - 11 January 2009.

Note: A pair of similar huanghuali stools, also dated to the 17th century, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Piccus, was sold at Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 44. A single huanghuali cabriole leg stool is illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Ming Shi Jia Ju Zhen Shang (Appreciation of Ming Style Furniture), Beijing, 1985, p. 63, pl. 17, formerly of the Flacks Family Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2016, lot 1137. See, also, another single huanghuali cabriole leg stool, in the Wang Shixiang Collection, with shaped aprons and giant’s arm’s braces illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Ming Shi Jia Ju Zhen Shang (Appreciation of Ming Style Furniture), Beijing, 1985, p. 64, pl. 18. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York