Ɏ A HUANGHUALI RECTANGULAR CORNER-LEG STOOL, CHANGFANGDENG, EARLY QING DYNASTY

拍品描述

Ɏ A HUANGHUALI RECTANGULAR CORNER-LEG STOOL, CHANGFANGDENG, EARLY QING DYNASTY China, 17th-18th century. With a soft mat seat set within a rectangular frame of traditional mitre, mortise-and-tenon construction, above a short waist and plain aprons, raised on four square-section legs with beaded edges, joined by humpback stretchers and terminating in hoof feet. Dimensions: Size 52 x 48.5 x 42 cm The form of the present stool suits it well to a variety of settings, due to its simple, yet sturdy shape, and examples exist with both soft and hard mat seats, with and without stretchers, and with and without carved surfaces. Several examples of similar huanghuali stools dated to the 17th century are known, including a pair in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 38-9, no. 2. Another rectangular huanghuali stool, is illustrated in Wang Shih-Hsiang et. al, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and early Qing Dynasties,1990, p. 23, fig. A16 (see literature comparison). Sarah Handler in Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, pp. 82-102, evocatively explains the development of the use of the stool and its subsequent derivations and developments into chair forms. The author cites the earliest known depiction of the Chinese stool as an engraved fragment found on an incised bronze vessel from the Eastern Zhou period. There appear to be few remaining examples of ancient Chinese stools, but we do begin to see representations again in Buddhist art in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. Handler explains: "In a formal sense, every chair or table has a stool in it, even though additional elements may disguise the essential underlying form. Adding armrests conclusively changes a stool into a chair: expanding the dimensions of the stool's top produces a table. The stool's principle of support remains the same. The modest stool is ubiquitous and practical, and in the Chinese imagination has also made it beautiful in shape and surface." Literature comparison: Compare a closely related changfangdeng, illustrated in Wang Shih-Hsiang et. al, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and early Qing Dynasties,1990, p. 23, fig. A16. Compare a closely related pair of changfangdeng, also dated to the 17th century, 50.8 x 48.3 x 39.1 cm, in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession number 95.56.2. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s New York, 18 March 2015, lot 168 Price: USD 149,000 or approx. EUR 183,000 (for two) converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form with similar hoof feet, humpback stretchers, and size (51.1 x 51.4 x 44.8 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2007 Price: HKD 800,000 or approx. EUR 125,000 (for two) converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form with similar hoof feet, humpback stretchers, and size (51.7 x 47.9 x 40.9 cm). This item contains ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, and/or some types of tropical wood and is subject to CITES when exporting outside the EU. It is typically not possible to export such items outside of the EU, including to the UK. Therefore, after this item has the necessary trade certificate, it can only be shipped within the EU or picked up in our gallery in person.

图片