An outstanding and rare huanghuali couch with solid rails, (luohanchuang) Late Ming / Early Qing Dynasty, 17th / 18th Century

magnificently composed of finely grained huanghuali with a soft matted seat set within a frame of wide members with a rounded outer edge, tapering towards a slightly grooved and squared lip, above a short straight waist and convex-shouldered apron undulating in a very subtle and gentle swell towards the center of each side, continuing to the strongly curved thick legs of squared section, terminating in low hoof feet and squared pad terminals, the inner edge of the legs and the apron accented with thick beading overall, the back and armrails composed of solid board huanghuali panels, butted at the ends with short closing members, all finely polished with rounded corners and upper edges left plain to reveal the natural beauty of the grain

This plainly decorated couchbed with its clean lines, perfect proportions, and subtle ornament celebrates the beauty of the wood grain.  The thick beaded-edge apron and low railings emphasize its horizontality.  See a similar couchbed with straight legs terminating in low hoof feet and plain railings, illustrated in Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, p. 130, fig. 9.12. 

This type of couchbed with a straight apron, low hoof feet, and restrained decoration, must have been popular in the late Ming Dynasty, as it appears frequently on woodblock illustrations.  See an illustration from the Jin Ping Mei ('The Plum in the Golden Vase') showing the heroine lying seductively on a couchbed casting a love hexagram with her shoes in the hopes that her lover Ximen will visit her, illustrated in ibid, fig. 9.13.  The couchbed was a major piece of furniture in women's apartments, on which they spent a good portion of their day.  These couches were accessorized with long footrests, backrests, decorative cushions, and padded blankets.  Records from the early-seventeenth century Treatises On Superfluous Things, by Wen Zhenheng, indicate that these beds were also a part of a scholar's studio.  The beds would then serve to hold books and antiquarian objects, as well as to function as a meditation or relaxation platform. 

See another couchbed in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, with solid railings, but with C-curved legs, illustrated in Robert H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1970, p. 145, cat. no. 36.  Another example also with C-curved legs, in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is illustrated in Robert Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, cat. no. 22. A third example with hoof feet from the Otto Burchard Collection, is illustrated in Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland, Vermont, 1962, no. 21, pl. 27.