Lot 114. A huanghuali square stool, Late Ming dynasty; 49.3 by 57.5 by 57 cm, 19 3/8  by 22 5/8  by 22 3/8  in. Estimate HK$480,000 — 700,000 (56,493 - 82,386 EUR). Lot Sold 937,500 HKD (105,836 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

the top of standard mitre, mortise, tenon frame construction with exposed tenons on the short sides of the frame top with two transverse braces underneath, resting on beaded-edged legs rounded on the outside and squared on the inside, the legs double-tennoned into the frame top, the similarly beaded-edged, cloud-shaped apron tongue-and-grooved into the legs and butt-joined to the underside of the seat frame, the four hump-back shaped stretchers with ridge mouldings mitred and tennoned into the legs. 

Provenance: Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong.

Bibliography: Grace Wu Bruce, Two Decades of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2010, p. 161.

Note: This huanghuali square stool is decorated with beautiful cloud-shaped spandrels and fitted with stretchers carved with ridge mouldings below. Standard hoof feet and hump-back stretchers are the most frequently seen features in surviving examples of huanghuali stools; unusual designs like the present example are quite rare.

Compare a very similar piece in the C.F. Bieber collection, illustrated in George N. Kates, Chinese Household Furniture, 1948, reprinted 1962, pl. 91.

Sotheby's. Ming Furniture – An Asian Private Collection, Hong Kong, 06 avr. 2016, 02:00 PM