QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Details

A VERY RARE PAIR OF HUANGHUALI FAN-SHAPED STOOLS
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
Each stool is elegantly formed in imitation of bamboo furniture, with the fan-shaped top panel set within double-ribbed frame of conforming shape and raised on round-section legs joined by stretchers below the waist.
18 1/2 in. (47 cm.) high, 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) wide, 22 1/2 in. (57.2 cm.) deep

Provenance

Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong, 1996

Exhibited

Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas, on loan from 2007-2014.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, on loan from 2014-2019.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory, tortoiseshell and crocodile. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Further details

Please note these lots contain a type of Dalbergia wood that is subject to CITES export/import restrictions. However, as in each lot (or each individual item in the lot) the weight of this type of Dalbergia does not exceed 10 kg, starting from 1 May 2021, CITES license is no longer required for importing the lot (or the individual item in the lot) into Hong Kong. Before you decide to bid, please check whether your destination country permits import without CITES license. If CITES license is required, we will make the lot available for your collection in Hong Kong. We will not cancel your purchase due to any CITES restrictions impacting the import of the lot to the destination country.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Pola Antebi (安蓓蕾) Deputy Chairman, Asia Pacific, International Director

pantebi@christies.com +852 2978 9950

Lot Essay

Fan-shaped stools were made to complement round dining tables. It is particularly rare to find a surviving pair of this, especially those made from huanghuali. Stools of various shapes, including fan-shape, are illustrated in the early Qing dynasty album Bai Mei tu, see Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Volume I, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 32. For a further discussion on the shape and utilization in the domestic life of the Chinese upper-class in the Qing dynasty, see Wu Meifeng, Shengqing Jiaju Xingzhi liubian yanjiu (Research on the evolution of Qing dynasty furniture shapes), Beijing, 2005, p. 312.

A pair of stools of rectangular shape but of bamboo-inspired design, dated to the late 16th-early 17th century, in the Lu Ming Shi collection is illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Living with Ming – The Lu Ming Shi Collection, 2000, pp. 78.-9, pl. 13. A very similar stool also inspired by bamboo design but of square shape from the Robert and William Drummond Collection is illustrated by Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 97, fig. 77.

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