Lot 1148. An exceptional and very rare huanghuali folding chair, 17th century; 108.6 cm high, 78.7 cm wide, 57.8 cm deep. Price realised USD 2,820,000 (Estimate USD 2,000,000 – USD 3,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Peter Lai Antiques, Hong Kong.
Private collection, Japan, early 1990s.
Christie's Hong Kong, 29-30 October 1995, lot 601.

Note: The present folding chair is notable for its majestic proportions and the dynamic sweep of the rounded crestrail that terminates in bold, confident outswept hooks. This important folding chair embodies the subtle grace and technical genius of Ming-dynasty huanghuali furniture. It is evident that whoever commissioned this chair had access not only to an abundance of high quality huanghuali and highly skilled woodworkers. The crestrail is constructed in three-parts, in contrast to the more commonly seen five-part rails. This requires longer lengths of wood, and arguably a more skilled woodworker to execute the precise curve in three sections. Furthermore, the carved chilong on the front rail is crisp and fluid. The members overall are unusually thick which highlights the energetic curves and awe-inspiring lines of this specific form of chair.

The folding horseshoe-back armchair was used by the Imperial family and wealthy and powerful individuals and functioned as a symbol of status and rank. The “first folding chair” (di yi ba jiaoyi) is a well-known Chinese saying and conveys the importance of this type of chair, as the most honored seat in a public room. A woodblock print published in the Ming-dynasty carpenter’s manual, Lu Ban Jing, shows an official seated on a folding horseshoe-back chair at the front of the room, with a side chair and a ‘Southern Official’s Hat’ armchair (nanguanmaoyi) arranged to his right and left, respectively. These vacant seats were intended for men of lesser rank and so distinguished the host.

Constructed in a variety of materials and woods, including lacquer, and exotic woods, such as huanghuali, folding horseshoe-back chairs could be used as portable thrones when intended for Imperial use. The folding chair is frequently seen in Ming and Qing period imperial paintings as the seat for both emperors and empresses.

Though folding horseshoe-back armchairs are seen in Ming-dynasty woodblock prints and in Song-dynasty paintings, there are only a limited number of surviving examples dating to 17th century. Of what furniture remains from the Ming period, the folding horseshoe-back armchair is the rarest. Of the surviving examples dating to the Ming dynasty, the majority are found in prominent museum collections, while a few remain in private hands. A huanghuali folding horseshoe-back armchair, dated to the Ming dynasty, with C-curved splat and ruyi medallion, but with more elaborate metalwork on the arms and footrest, is in the Palace Museum collections and is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (vol. 1), Hong Kong, 2002, no. 14. An almost identical pair of huanghuali folding armchairs formerly in the collection of Niu Jian, a teacher to the Daoguang and Xiangfeng Emperors, is in the WuWei Museum in Gansu Province. Like the present folding chair, the pair features the same thick members, dramatic sweeping three-part crestrail, and tripartite splat.

Lot 1149. A rare huanghuali daybed, 17th century; 48.6 cm high, 191.8 cm wide, 99.4 cm deep. Price realised USD 1,260,000 (Estimate USD 400,000 – USD 600,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: C. T. Loo, New York, 17 July 1959.

Note: The platform bed, or ta, with its simple and restrained lines, represents one of the very few forms to be preserved in classical Chinese furniture design. By the Ming dynasty, platforms with four legs in various sizes had come into favour replacing earlier box-construction platforms. The present lot has a bold and simple design, with restrained lines and no relief decoration that fashioned from thick pieces of finely grained wood.

Daybeds with hoof feet and without stretchers are exceptionally rare. A citable example is the wooden model mentioned by Wang Zhengshu in his article, ‘Conjectures on Models of Ming-Period Furniture from the Pan Yunzheng Tomb in Shanghai’, Beyond the Screen, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1996, pp. 77-83, and illustrated by N. Berliner, op. cit., p. 150, no. 30b. A smaller huanghuali flush-corner leg daybed was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2020, lot 2808. An important huanghuali daybed, of more robust proportions, and illustrated by G. Ecke in Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, 1962, pl. 19, no. 15, was sold at Classical Chinese Furniture from Heveningham Hall; Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2021, lot 2803.

Lot 1159. A very rare set of four zitan stools, 18th century; 52.7 cm high, 46.4 cm wide, 36.2 cm deep. Price realised USD 781,200 (Estimate USD 150,000 – USD 250,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Prince Gong (1833-1898) (sixth son of Emperor Daoguang, r. 1821-1850) Collection.
The J. M. Hu (1911-1995), Zande Lou Collection.

Exhibited: Taipei, National Palace Museum, 1983.

Literature: Published in The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, 1983, vol. 3, p. 101 with the caption “The Museum’s recent acquisitions from the Prince Gong collection.”

Note: Yixin (1833-1898), more commonly referred to by his title, Prince Gong (or Prince Kung), was one of the most important Chinese statesman of the 19th century. As the sixth son of the Daoguang Emperor (r. 1821-1850), he was at one time considered as a possible successor to the throne, although his half-brother eventually inherited the title of Emperor. He negotiated with the foreign powers to conclude the Second Opium War in 1860, and after the death of his brother in 1861, served as Prince-Regent to his young nephew, the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861-1875), and for many years was one of the most influential figures at the Qing court.

Prince Gong continued to serve as chief diplomat and statesman throughout the reigns of the Tongzhi Emperor and his successor, the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875-1908). Upon his death in 1898, the title of Prince Gong and his sumptuous mansion passed to his successor, Pu Wei. A year after the Qing Empire was overthrown in 1911, Pu Wei made the painful decision to sell the family treasures in the mansion in order to reverse the defeat of the Qing dynasty, and entrusted them to the Japanese antique dealer, Yamanaka Sadajiro. Although no furniture is listed in the Yamanaka catalogue, it is likely the furniture of the house was sold around this time, as the mansion, now in a dilapidated and abandoned state, was eventually sold to the Order of Saint Benedict of the Catholic Church in 1921.

Around 1983, the National Palace Museum in Taipei was approached by Dong Wu University in Taiwan to facilitate the sale of a collection of zitan furniture. The university had been gifted the collection by an anonymous donor, who claimed the furniture had come from the Gong Wang Fu, purchased by his family in the early 20th century and transported in the intervening years from Beijing, to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and finally to Taiwan. Scholars associated with the National Palace Museum conducted extensive research prior to the sale, and based on the quality and abundance of the luxury hardwood, zitan, the carving technique, and the style of the furniture itself, determined it was highly likely the furniture had come from the Gong Wang Fu. The collection is on permanent exhibition at the National Palace Museum in Taipei and catalogued as coming from Prince Gong’s Mansion.

The present set of four zitan stools were part of the original gift by the anonymous donor to Dongwu University and were exhibited alongside the large suite of zitan furniture at the National Palace Museum, Taipei. In an article published in The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, 1983, vol. 3, p. 101, the present zitan stools are photographed beneath an ornately carved zitan corner-leg table and a pair of zitan stepped cabinets, both currently on view at the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (Fig. 1) The caption below the photograph can be translated as “the Museum’s recent acquisitions from the Prince Gong collection.” When the exhibition closed, the donor decided to keep this set of four stools and the zitan display shelf (lot 1160).

In Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 27, A28, Wang Shixiang illustrates a line drawing of a waisted stool with graceful incurving legs terminating in a hoof foot and joined by a base rail. He notes that several zitan stools with base stretchers and relief-carved ruyi on the aprons are in the Palace Museum collection, and dates stools of this type to the early Qing period. A related example with deeper incurving legs, carved corner spandrels, and no base rail is illustrated by Hu Desheng in The Palace Museum Collection: A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, vol. 1, Beijing, c. 2007, p. 138, fig. 125.

Lot 1150. An unusual and rare pair of huanghuali low-back armchairs, 17th-18th century; 96.5 cm high, 57.2cm wide, 46.4 cm deep. Price realised USD 554,400 (Estimate USD 200,000 – USD 300,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Private collection, California.

Note: There are two types of rose chairs or meiguiyi. The most commonly seen type has an open back and arms framed by carved corner spandrels. The second, rarer type has a crestrail supported by a back splat. Rose chairs with back splats tend to be elaborate in their decoration, and with its distinctive, vase-form splat and openwork trellis pattern below the seat, the present pair are no exception. An identical pair measuring 96.5 cm. high is illustrated in N. Grindley, The Yunwai Lou Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2013, no. 33. A pair of huanghuali low-back side chairs, fitted with the same beaded, vase-form splat but with solid aprons and spandrels below the seat was sold at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2019, lot 871. Such a distinctive design of the splat suggests these chairs could have been part of a special commission for a larger suite of furniture.

Lot 1166. A pair of huanghuali low-back armchairs, 19th century; 89.5 cm high, 57.8 cm wide, 44.5 cm deep. Price realised USD 441,000 (Estimate USD 80,000 – USD 120,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Dynasty Asian Art Gallery, Santa Cruz, California, 17 March 2007. 

Lot 1151. A pair of huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, 18th century; 99.1 cm high, 66 cm wide, 59.7 cm deep. Price realised USD 327,600 (Estimate USD 200,000 – USD 300,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Acquired in New York, prior to 2008.

Note: Huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs can be found in numerous public and private collections, but few examples combine the elegant curving lines of the arms and attractive grain seen on the back splat. A pair of huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs of related proportions was sold at Christie’s New York, 24-25 March 2022, lot 1015. Another single huanghuali horseshoe-back armchair with a carved ruyi-head medallion on the splat, dated to the 17th century, was sold at Christie’s New York, 23-24 September 2021, lot 997.

Lot 1158. A small zitan throne chair, Late Qing dynasty; 85.7 cm high, 108.6 cm wide, 59.7 cm deep. Price realised USD 277,200 (Estimate USD 30,000 – USD 50,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: The J. M. Hu (1911-1995), Zande Lou Collection.

Note: The anonymous donor to Dong Wu University, who facilitated the donation of a suite of zitan furniture from the Prince Gong Mansion to the National Palace Museum, Taipei, had the present zitan throne chair in their private family collection based in Shanghai. The throne chair was one of the family’s most cherished pieces, and was placed in their study until the 1950s. Photographs taken by the donor in the 1970s document this throne chair prior alongside the set of four zitan stools (lot 1159) and other pieces of furniture now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Lot 1155. A huanghuali rectangular side table, 17th-18th century; 81.9 cm high, 102.8 cm wide, 63.3 cm deep. Price realised USD 151,200 (Estimate USD 120,000 – USD 180,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance:  XYH Antique, Vallejo, California, 7 July 2010.

Lot 1154. A rare huanghuali horseshoe-back armchair, 17th century; 97.2 cm high, 63.5 cm wide, 53.3 cm deep. Price realised USD 138,600 (Estimate USD 60,000 – USD 80,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: M. D. Flacks Ltd., New York.
The collection of Daniel Shapiro, New York.

Literature: M. D. Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture I, Spring 2007, New York, no. 1.

Note: The delicate, simple lines and graceful curve of the crestrail are what give the horseshoe-back armchair its elegant appearance. The use of the more rarely seen humpback stretchers and vertical struts under the seat give the present chair a more sophisticated air and further emphasizes the beautiful lines of this form. A pair of continuous huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs with the same configuration of stretchers and struts was sold at Christie’s New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1745.

Lot 1137. A pair of huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs, 19th century; 97.8 cm high, 65.4 cm wide, 59.7 cm deep. Price realised USD 126,000 (Estimate USD 70,000 – USD 90,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong.
XYH Antique, Vallejo, California, 7 July 2010.

Lot 1167. A pair of huanghuali rectangular stools, Qing dynasty (1644-1911); 51.4 cm high, 57.2 cm wide, 47 cm deep. Price realised USD 119,700 (Estimate USD 100,000 – USD 150,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Note: Two such huanghuali stools are illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. II, p. 26, pls. A24 and A25. The legs of A24 are more attenuated and with a more subtle curve to those of the present stool. The legs of A25 have a more exaggerated curve and are supported by “giant arm braces”, giving the stool a somewhat more squat appearance. The present pair is more closely related to the second example.

Lot 1160. A carved zitan display shield with hongmu stand, 19th century; 155 cm high, 97.8 cm wide, 41 cm deep. Price realised USD 81,900 (Estimate USD 70,000 – USD 90,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Prince Gong (1833-1898) (sixth son of Emperor Daoguang, r. 1821-1850).
The J. M. Hu (1911-1995), Zande Lou Collection.

Exhibited: Taipei, National Palace Museum, 1983.

Note: Display shelves are found in various materials and sizes. The open shelving in a varying heights and configurations allowed for the display of vases and decorative works in contrasting sizes, colors and shapes. This style of display created sumptuous and lavish interior spaces, such as the pair of curio cabinets filled with bronzes and porcelains in the eastern wing of the Chuxiu Palace, illustrated by Hu Desheng in The Palace Museum Collection: A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, vol. 2, Beijing, c. 2007, p. 696, fig. 797. A related gilt-decorated zitan display shelf, dated to the Yongzheng-Qianlong period, in the Qing collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 54 - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 254, no. 216 and p. 270, no. 229. Similar to the present display shelf, these display shelves have an asymmetrical arrangement of shelves and drawers of varying heights and shapes, each opening fitted with an openwork gallery. Wang Shixiang illustrates in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. 54, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 144, D9, a three-shelf open stand with two drawers raised on two removeable pedestals suggesting that these display shelves were adapted to the interior setting.

Lot 1141. A large cypress rectangular painting table, 16th-17th century; 80 cm high, 210.8 cm wide, 82.9 cm deep. Price realised USD 69,300 (Estimate USD 40,000 – USD 60,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: C. L. Ma Collection, Hong Kong.
M. D. Flacks Ltd, New York.
Elizabeth and Luis Virata Collection, Manila, the Philippines.
M. D. Flacks Ltd, New York.
Daniel Shapiro Collection, New York.

Literature: C. Evarts, C. L. Ma Collection: Traditional Chinese Furniture from the Greater Shanxi Region, 1999, pp. 166-67, no. 67.

* 

Lot 1136. A beige stone-inset lacquered jumu wine table, 17th-18th century; 87.3 cm high, 103.5 cm wide, 70.5 cm deep. Price realised USD 63,000 (Estimate USD 8,000 – USD 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: M. D. Flacks Ltd., New York, no. 0008.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York.

Literature: M. D. Flacks Ltd., Classical Chinese Furniture III: Woods of China, Autumn 1998, New York, pp. 20-21, no. 10.

Exhibited: M. D. Flacks Ltd., Classical Chinese Furniture III: Woods of China, Autumn 1998, New York, pp. 20-21, no. 10.

*

Lot 1145. A rare huanghuali kang cabinet, 17th century; 56.7 cm high, 49.2 cm wide, 29. 2 cm deep. Price realised USD 44,100 (Estimate USD 40,000 – USD 60,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: C. L. Ma Antiques, Hong Kong, 3 February 1996.

Lot 1172. A tielimu folding chair, 17th-18th century; 106.7 cm high, 80.6 cm wide, 70.5 cm deep. Price realised USD 30,240 (Estimate USD 25,000 – USD 35,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Hampton Briggs Antiques, Bridgehampton, New York. 

Lot 1175. A rare massive tielimu trestle-leg table, 18th-19th century; 95.9 cm high, 260.4 cm wide, 42.5 cm deep. Price realised USD 30,240 (Estimate USD 30,000 – USD 50,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Carved in imitation of bamboo furniture, the top demountable.

Note: The design of the present table was inspired by bamboo furniture. The members are carved to imitate the nodes of stalks of bamboo. The abundance of bamboo in China made it popular among the lower classes, as a cost-effective and more easily portable alternative to the more luxurious hardwood furniture.

Examples of this design, with the articulated nodes, are seen in huanghuali and various hardwoods. A pair of bamboo-inspired tielimu horseshoe-back armchairs sold at Christie's New York, 22-23 September 2022, lot 783.

Lot 1164. A rare carved silver and gold-inlaid burl-inset hardwood stand, 18th-19th century.Possibly ebony; 79.1 cm high, 40.6 cm square. Price realised USD 9,450 (Estimate USD 10,000 – USD 15,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: John Edward Taylor (1830-1905) Collection, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Christie's London, 1-11 July 1912, lot 651B.
Agnew's, London.
Sotheby's New York, 30 November 1993, lot 393.

Lot 1173. A tielimu trestle-leg table, 18th century; 89.5 cm high, 128.3 cm wide, 37.5 cm deep. Price realised USD 8,820 (Estimate USD 8,000 – USD 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Lot 1174. A tielimu display cabinet, 18th-19th century; 144.8 cm high, 87.6 cm wide, 41.3 cm deep. Price realised USD 6,930 (Estimate USD 7,000 – USD 9,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023