紐約蘇富比1990年10月18至19日，編號565

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Huanghuali yokeback armchairs of this type are of striking modernity in the simplicity and balance of their lines. They are called guanmao yi or ‘official's hat-shaped chairs’, the name derived from its resemblance to the winged hat that was part of the formal attire of the Ming officials. They were regarded as high chairs and retained a connotation of status and authority associated with the elite gentry in Chinese society. The classical text Lu Ban jing (Manuscript of Lu Ban), a 15th century carpenter’s manual, gives specifications for these chairs and describes the joinery as the embodiment and fine example of Chinese furniture. They are special because only four pieces of wood are used for the four verticals of the front legs and front arm-posts, the back legs and back posts, with each vertical passing through the frame of the seat. They also reflect the trend in Chinese furniture manufacture, from the 15th century to the 19th century, when the technical expedients in holding a piece together became less evident.

Ming and Qing period literature illustrations characteristically show armchairs of this form used at dinner tables, in reception halls for guests and at the writing table in the scholar’s studio. For example, see a woodblock print in the 1616 edition of The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) showing the main male character and his principal wife seated on a guanmao yi while dining with his secondary wives and concubines seated on stools illustrated in Craig Clunas, 'The Novel Jin Ping Mei as a Source for the Study of Ming Furniture', Chinese Furniture Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-2003, Hong Kong, 2004, fig. 8, p. 118. For a general discussion on the basic model and decorative vocabulary of these armchairs see Curtis Evarts, ‘From Ornate to Unadorned’, Journal of the Chinese Classical Furniture Society, Spring, 1993, pp. 24-33. 

A yokeback armchair with rounded ends, a plain serpentine splat and set back arm posts similar to the present example was sold in these rooms 20th March 2012, lot 127. A related pair from the Robert H. Ellsworth collection was sold at Christie's New York, 18th March 2015, lot 121. Another related pair of undecorated chairs was sold in our London rooms, 7th November 2012, lot 281. A further pair, also 17th century and closely related to the present example, was sold in these rooms, 11th September 2012, lot 218. A related armchair in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum, Chair, vol. 4,  Beijing, 2016, pp. 122-123.