An outstanding and fine pair of zitan square stools with burlwood tops 18th Century

with superbly figured dense burlwood floating-panel within a thick frame with rounded outer edge, set on a high straight waist and bulging curved legs of square section terminating in high hoof feet, all secured by plain straight aprons and slightly humpbacked flattened foot-stretchers set into the hoofs, accented by raised beading along all inner edges, and the curved legs subtly tapering in thickness from the pronounced bulge at the waist to a slender 'ankle' just above the feet to impose a sense of lightness in the form to balance the heavy weight and opulent variations within the grain

Christie’s New York, 21st September 2000, lot 45.

Although waisted stools with hoof feet are common, the present pair of stools are noteworthy for their wonderful proportions, solidity and grace.  It is rare to find a pair of matching stools of generous proportions in such a rare material as zitan, the densest and most prized of Chinese hardwoods.  The sumptuous curves of each of the legs required larger sections of the expensive zitan wood than what would have been required for a simple, straight leg. It is also rare for stools to have foot-stretchers tenoned directly into the hoofs, normally a complex and structurally less sturdy joint, but compensated here by the integral strength of the dense zitan wood. 

Compare a single zitan stool with similarly in-curving hoof feet but lacking the humpbacked foot-stretchers in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, no. 45; and another related stool supported on a base stretcher, discussed by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. I, p. 32, and vol. II, p. 27, pl. A28. 

See also a comparable hongmu stool with humpbacked foot-stretchers joining the legs with a less pronounced curve, illustrated by R.H. Ellsworth, Chinese Hardwood Furniture in Hawaiian Collections, Honolulu, 1982, pp. 37 and 85, pl. 70; and a low zitan table with similarly bulging legs and a burlwood top illustrated in W. Drummond, ‘Chinese Furniture: The Sackler Collections,’ Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Summer 1993, p. 61, pl. 10.