Lot 178. A pair of huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, Late Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 67.5 by 62.5 by h. 102 cm. Lot sold: 5,292,000 HKD (Estimate: 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

each of elegant and generous proportion, the horseshoe back surmounting a curved splat, the splat carved with a shaped archaistic medallion and flanked by moulded spandrels decorated with similar archaistic scroll, the armrest supported by S-shaped braces in the middle and front posts that recede inward and tongue-and-grooved with shaped spandrels, the rear posts continue through the seat rail forming the back legs, the legs joined by a footrail and stretchers of ascending heights and decorated with cusped and moulded aprons, reinforced with metal straps at the structural joins.

Provenance: Eastern Pacific Co. (Hei Hung-Lu), Hong Kong, 23rd January 1988.

Sotheby's. HOTUNG  The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 9 October 2022