18TH/19TH CENTURY

细节

A VERY RARE PAIR OF FINELY CARVED HUAMU-INSET ZITAN ARMCHAIRS
18TH/19TH CENTURY
Each with tall, protruding splat inset with a thick huamu panel carved in high relief with a fierce five-clawed dragon clutching a pearl and ascending amidst scrolling clouds, flanked by huamu panels carved with a phoenix amidst bamboo, the huamu side panels carved with blossoming prunus and pine, all set within the elegantly shaped zitan rails carved with a diaper ground, the zitan seat set within the wide frame above a plain waist and plain, beaded aprons, the whole supported on thick legs of square section terminating in scroll-form feet and joined by plain stretchers framing elaborately carved rope-twist elements
42 in. (106.7 cm.) high, 25½ in. (64.8 cm.) wide, 20 in. (50.8 cm.) deep (2)

来源

Sotheby's, New York, 23 September 1997, lot 453.

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拍品专文

The present pair of zitan and huamu armchairs falls into a group of mid-Qing Palace furniture, primarily carved from zitan, and all of related form. The most distinctive characteristics of this group are high, protruding crestrails surmounting the splat, rounded, stepped armrails, and the substantial use of thick members of zitan, with heavily carved, highly ornamental decoration.

Several armchairs of this type are published. See The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 47, no. 37, p. 63, no. 52, and p. 67, no. 56. For an example of how pairs of these chairs would be used, see a pair of elaborately carved, cloisonné enamel-inset zitan armchairs flanking a square corner-leg table in the Chu Xiu Gong (The Palace of Gathering Excellence), illustrated in Ming Qing Gong Jia Ju Da Guan, 2006, p. 677, no. 776.