Note: The form of the present pair of stools suits them well to a variety of settings, due to their simple, yet sturdy shape, and examples exist with both soft and hard mat seats, with and without stretchers, and with and without carved surfaces. Several examples of similar huanghuali stools dated to the 17th century are known, including a square corner-leg stool illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol. II, 1990, Hong Kong, p. 23, no. A16. Another example, of rectangular form, and also dated to the 17th century is a pair in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 38-9, no. 2.