Lot 25. A pair of huanghuali stools, chandeng, Late Ming dynasty, 66 by 66 by h. 52 cm. Estimate: 1,000,000 - 1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold: 1,260,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

each with the top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon construction enclosing a cane surface, with moulded sides above a narrow waist continuing to a plain apron, raised on four straight legs ending in hoof feet and joined by humpbacked stretchers below the apron.

Note: Constructed with seat frames considerably larger than those of fangdeng, this pair of chairs are also referred to as chandeng (meditation stools) and were likely to have been used as a meditation platform or for sitting in the cross-legged position. Meditation stools such as the current pair enjoyed great popularity and were often placed in scholars’ studios or meditation halls, enabling scholars and monks to meditate as a means of self-cultivation.  

Compare a similar pair of late Ming dynasty huanghuali meditation stools but of slightly smaller proportions (62.6 by 62.6 by 51.8 cm), from the collections of T.T. Tsui and Dr S. Y. Yip, illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, Feast by a wine table reclining on a couch: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture III, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 54-55, cat. no. 12.