17TH CENTURY

Stools have been an integral part of Chinese furniture tradition and were commonly used both indoors and outdoors. Circular stools of different shapes have been illustrated in paintings and woodblock prints, such as in the 1498 illustration of Xixiang Ji (The Story of the Western Chamber) where the circular stool was used as a table (fig. 1). However, surviving examples of circular stools such as the present example with cabriole legs are rare.

The elegantly curved legs on the current example resemble an elephant trunk or a curved ruyi-scepter. This type of leg can be found on incense stands of circular form that are very similar in shape but are taller in size. A huanghuali circular incense stand (88 cm. high) with four legs terminating in ruyi-heads is in the collection of the Chinese Cultural Relic Information Center, kept at the Prince Gong’s Palace, Beijing, is illustrated by Lv Zhangshen, Wooden Art Chinese Furniture Treasures of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing, 2014, pp 104-105 (fig. 2). A very rare zitan circular stool of similar size (57 cm. high) with four cabriole legs terminating in scroll ends and braces supporting the seating tops is illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Sublime and Divine. Chinese Ming Furniture, Hong Kong, 2014, p. 124-31.