A HUANGHUALI SPINDLEBACK ARMCHAIR, MEIGUIYI 17TH CENTURY

composed of finely grained timber of a rich honey-brown tone, the hard-caned seat framed by a straight crestrail above gently curved spindles, the rear stiles joined to the straight armrest supported by shorter curved spindles of similar form, all above an openwork apron enclosing vertical struts, the legs joined to a stretcher

It is rare to find large spindleback chairs of this proportion.  The meiguiyi low-back style armchair is the more common form for spindleback chairs.  See an example from the Lan Xinmei Collection, illustrated in Splendor of Style: Classical Furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasty, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1999, p.93. 

This chair is extraordinary for the superb craftsmanship and elegant design which emphasises the lightness of the form. Gustav Ecke illustrates a pair of hongmu spindleback armchairs in Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland, VT, 1962, pl. 88 and another in hongmu illustrated in Robert H. Ellsworth, Chinese Hardwood Furniture in Hawaiian Collections, Honolulu, 1982, pp. 61.  Compare also a similar chair in jichimu, in the collection of Dr. S.Y. Yip, illustrated in Dr. S.Y. Yip and Grace Wu-Bruce, Feast by a Wine Table Reclining on a Couch, Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007, cat. no. 7.