A rare pair of Chinese Huanghuali yoke-back armchairs, sichutou guanmaoyi 黄花梨四出頭官帽椅一对 17th/ 18th century ???????

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Each with well-shaped serpentine crest with rounded out-turned ears, over shaped stiles and matched serpentine splats with dramatic flame-like figure, each splat carved with a single shaped reserve in low relief depicting a stylized large kuei dragon and a small dragon; the serpentine arms with shaped supports and outset rounded hand rests; all over a rectangular seat with inset soft mat, over slightly splayed circular legs joined by a box stretcher, shaped skirt carved in low relief with vegetal scrolls.

H: 43 1/2 in.; W: 25 1/2 in.; D: in.

PROVENANCE:

Formerly in the collection of a retired American foreign service officer, acquired in China between 1984 and 2011.

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NOTE:

The present rare pair of elegant armchairs, “sichutou fushouyi armchair with four protruding ends” (“armchair with four protruding ends”) or “sichutou guanmaoyi official’s-hat chair with four protruding ends”, are particularly notable for the energetic, flame-like figure of the serpentine splats, a true pair, with the matching grain indicating they were cut from the same timber, and the organic quality of the sculpted details.

The late Ming classical armchair was the highest development of the form in Chinese joinery, and such chairs would have been reserved for the most important guests, or eldest or most honored members of a household. The lustrous golden-reddish-brown huanghuali timber, dense and strong, allowed the Chinese craftsman to create light weight chairs which might be easily moved to satisfy changing needs and occasions, yet convey the wealth and connoisseurship of the patron. The curved splat, cut to accommodate the sitter, the overhanging serpentine crest rail and arms, and the slender vertical elements, often of circular section, all served to influence western designers such as Thomas Chippendale and Hans Wegner.

For a similar pair of armchairs, of narrower proportions, without the carved element on the splats, and less exuberant grain, see the pair in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, illustrated in Sarah Handler, " Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture”, Berkeley, 2001, p. 53, fig. 4.13. Compare also the more generously proportioned, less ornamented pair in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen with Nicholas Grindley, “Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Art”, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 50-51, no. 8. See also the single armchair, with smaller, less organically sculpted crest rail ends and hands, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, “Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture”, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. II, p. 43, no. A70.

Compare the pair of armchairs with shaped and carved skirt, sold at Sotheby's, London, November 7, 2012, lot 281. Compare also the pair of armchairs, without additional carving to the splat or skirt, sold at Christie's, New York, September 18 , 2014, lot 1113. See also the pair of armchairs sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, November 30, 2020, lot 2827, and the later pair of armchairs, dated 19 ^th /early 20 ^th century, without carving to the splat and a plain skirt, sold at Christie's, New York, March 18, 2021, lot 751.

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