Lot 421. A pair of huanghuali horseshoeback armchairs (quanyi), 17th-18th century; Height 40 in., 101.6 cm; Width 23 3/4  in., 60.3 cm; Depth 18 1/4  in., 46.4 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Lot sold 87,500 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's 2014.

each with a curving crestrail in five sections terminating in everted handgrips, above a S-shaped backsplat, flanked by narrow shaped-flange brackets, with a soft cane seat and molded seat frame, on circular section legs joined by a shaped and beaded apron, flanked by long beaded-edge flange brackets secured by stepped box stretchers (2). 

Provenance: Christie's New York, 28th March 1996, lot 254.

Note: Horseshoeback armchairs of this type are represented in many public and private collections.  For a discussion of this design, see Robert H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch'ing Dynasty, New York, 1971, pp. 86-7, and Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 43-5.

Examples of this popular form in huanghuali include a pair with carved ruyi heads on the splats, illustrated in Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 56, no. 26, later sold in these rooms, 19th September 1996, lot 99. A similar pair was sold in our London rooms, 7th November 2012, lot 288 and another closely related pair in these rooms 14th September 2011, lot 140.