Canalblog
Editer l'article Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog
Publicité
Alain.R.Truong
Alain.R.Truong
Publicité
Visiteurs
Depuis la création 50 863 684
Archives
Newsletter
Alain.R.Truong
4 octobre 2020

A very rare huanghuali folding stool, jiaowu, 17th century

téléchargement (34)

téléchargement (35)

Lot 60. A very rare huanghuali folding stool, jiaowu, 17th century; 57.3 by 37.3 by h. 53.5 cm, 22 ½ by 14 ⅝ by h. 21 in. Estimate: 300,000 - 500,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,772,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

with beaded-edged curvilinear shaped seat rails drilled for a woven seat, one side of the rails carved with confronting chilong and the reverse with flowers, the round legs mortised, tennoned and lapped to the seat rails and base stretchers, hinged by metal rods passing through holes in their centre and secured on both sides by chrysanthemum-shaped metal plates, reinforced by rectangular plates with ruyi heads, a rectangular footrest with a cusped apron and two feet mortised and tennoned to the front pair of legs and base stretcher, the top applied with a baitong interlocking triple lozenge and corner mounts.

Provenance The Gangolf Geis Collection.
Christie's New York, 18th September 2003, lot 27.

NoteAs conveniently lightweight and comfortable seats, folding stools such as the current example were popular in the Ming dynasty among travelling scholars and military officials. This design derives from prototypes known since the Han dynasty, when folding stools were imported by nomadic tribes from Central Asia and popularised by Emperor Lingdi (AD 168-189), who was fascinated by the foreign portable seat. The folding stool appears to be the first elevated type of seat in China, predating the emergence of the rigid frame chair (see Gustav Ecke, 'The Development of the Folding Chair. Notes on the History of the Form of the Eurasian Chair', Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, vol. 1, no. 1 (Winter, 1990), pp. 11-21). The woodblock print illustration to Lienü Zhuan [Biography of women in ancient China] by Ming dynasty painter Qiu Ying shows an attendant carrying a folding stool behind his master on horseback, suggesting their usage as travelling seats as well as stools for alighting from horses (Wanli period version, vol. 16, p. 147).

Compare a similar stool illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture, London, 1986, pl. 31; one also carved with chilong on the upper members, illustrated in Karen Mazurkewich, Chinese Furniture. A Guide to Collecting Antiques, Rutland, 2006, pl. 154; another from the collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, sold at Christie's New York, 17th March 2015, lot 40; a stool carved with a floral scroll in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 1; a larger example, lacking the chilong, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th November 2012, lot 2008; and another, first sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 413, and again in these rooms, 11th July 2020, lot 140.

Sotheby's. Monochrome II, 9 October 2020, Hong Kong

Publicité
Publicité
Commentaires
Publicité