A 'huanghuali' horseshoe-back armchair (Quanyi), 17th century

Sotheby's New York, 17th September 1998, lot 303.

Of elegant rounded form, this chair is characteristic of one of the most important and beloved designs in the history of Chinese furniture. Chairs of this rounded design, known as quanyi (lit. ‘circle chairs’) in Chinese, were particularly popular during the Ming dynasty when they were used as seats of honor and sedan chairs for wealthy households. A pottery model of a horseshoe-back chair at the rear of a sixty-six piece funeral procession from a Ming dynasty tomb is now held in the lobby of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art, San Francisco 1983, no. 115.

This rounded design was originally derived from bamboo construction techniques, where pliable lengths of bamboo were bent into a U-shape and bound together by natural fibers. Eventually carpenters turned to hardwood to further improve the design with its endurance, vibrant coloring and attractive grain pattern accentuated by the chair’s rounded form. To achieve a similarly sinuous result from the rigid hardwood, artisans developed sophisticated joinery techniques, including the elaborate ‘overlapping pressure pin scarf joint’ which joined slightly curved interlocking elements to form the single continuous line of the crestrail.