Lot 365. A pair of huanghuali 'meditation' chairs, chanyi; 86cm high x 74cm wide x 74cm deep. Sold for £ 25,250 (€ 30,085) (Est: £20,000 - £30,000). © Bonhams 2001-2021

Each with an elegant plain frame forming a low back and slender arms supported at right angles on straight front posts, the large hard-mat square seat above humpback stretchers with pillar-shaped struts.

Provenance: a distinguished European private collection.

Note: Notable for their understated elegance conveyed by their linear beauty and geometric simplicity, the present chairs are clearly inspired by an earlier prototype in the Ming dynasty. Chairs of similar form had been used since the sixth century. The low-back armchair serving as seat for the abbot or high prelate depicted on a mid-sixth century stele on the wall of a Buddhist cave in Dunhuang, for example, has a similar design to the present chairs, except for the higher back; see S.Handler, The Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992, p.14, fig.1.6. Surviving literature dating from the sixth century refers to these 'meditation' chairs as 'woven seats' shengchuang or shengzuo. According to the 'Record of Buddhist Monasteries', completed in AD 547, Buddhist monks practiced stillness, eating the wind and submitting to the Way as they sat cross-legged on rope seats shengzuo, in quiet meditation rooms nestled amidst luxurious gardens containing exotic fruit trees and fragrant azaleas; see W.J.F.Jenner, Memories of Loyang, Yang Hsuan-chich and the Lost Capital', Oxford, 1981, pp.493-534. A devotional handscroll of Buddhist images by Zhang Shengwen, executed between AD 1173 and 1176, depicts Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of the the Chinese Chan Buddhist sect, seated on a similarly-shaped chair but fashioned from gnarled branches.

Because of their deep seat and horizontal back rails, 'meditation' chairs made it difficult to sit comfortably on them, therefore, they were often used with separate backrests. In addition, judging from the contexts in which they were depicted, these chairs could be used in religious as well as secular contexts. See a woodblock illustration to 'Efficaceous Charms from the Tianzhu' Tianzhu lingqian, and 'Ximen Encounters a Barbarian Monk', a woodblock illustration to 'The Plum in the Golden Vase, dating to the Ming dynasty, depicting a scholar meditating in his garden in the lotus position, illustrated by S.Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992, p.33, figs.2.8 and 2.9.

A similarly-shaped huanghuali 'meditation' chair, 17th century, formerly in the Museum of Classical Chinese furniture in Renaissance, California, is illustrated by S.Handler, The Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992, p.26, fig.2.2.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art: Including Imperial and Court Textiles Curated by Linda Wrigglesworth, London, 2 november 2021