A rare and important huanghuali yokeback armchair, Late Ming dynasty | 明末 黃花梨四出頭官帽椅

R.H. Ellsworth Ltd, New York, 12th June 1982.

安思遠，紐約，1982年6月12日

This elegant chair is a fine example of the art of Ming (1368-1644) carpenters in creating furniture pieces that are technically sound, proportionally balanced and aesthetically beautiful. Contributing to the comfort of this chair is the S-shaped back splat, specifically designed to support the natural curvature of the sitter's spine. The everted ends of the top rail were designed not only to resemble the shape of an official's hat - thus the name guanmaoyi - but also serve a practical function of holding in place a suspended textile panel. Ming and Qing (1644-1911) literature illustrations characteristically show armchairs of this form used at dinner tables, in reception halls for guests and at the writing table in the scholar's studio. On special occasions, colourful textile would have draped over the crest rail and acted as a celebratory chair cover, as illustrated in the Wanli (1573-1620) edition of Yangzheng Tujie / Illustrated Book of Education Legends, also included in Grace Wu, The Best of the Best. The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, vol. 1, Beijing, 2017, p. 158. During the late Ming period, the elite was looking for simplicity and sophistication in furniture design. The poised plainness and restraint of adornment of this type of chair would have been an aesthetic statement in itself.

For a few examples with slight variation in dimensions and decoration on the aprons, see: a pair of high yoke-back armchairs, with a less elaborate beaded-edged apron, in the collection of Grace Wu Bruce, published in Michael Markbreiter, 'The Grace Wu Bruce Collection of Chinese Furniture', Arts of Asia, November-December 1987, p. 134; a pair with carved decoration above the centre of the apron, preserved in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (accession nos 64-4/13 A and 64-4/13 B), one of them illustrated in Orientations: Special Issue for the Chinese Art Collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 39, no. 8, November-December 2008, p. 63, fig. 12; and a chair similar to the Kansas City one, preserved in the Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing.

此椅設計優雅，充份表達明代（1368-1644年）木匠的精湛技術，藝術造詣。其弧形靠背自然地承托人的後背，增添舒適感。搭腦因形狀與官吏帽子相似而稱「官帽椅」，同時供懸掛織物用。明清（1644-1911年）版畫中官帽椅常見於餐桌側、文房書案前、或會客室中為賓客而設。萬曆（1563-1620年）刊本《養正圖解》版畫，在特別場合上，椅背披彩布，更顯高貴（見伍嘉恩，《木趣居：家具中的嘉具》，北京，2017年，卷1，頁158）。晚明時期，簡雅素麗家具備受推崇，此類椅具沉著樸素，誠美學典範。

參考數例同類官帽椅，尺寸與紋飾略有不同：一高靠背例，伍嘉恩蓄，錄於 Michael Markbreiter，〈The Grace Wu Bruce Collection of Chinese Furniture〉，《Arts of Asia》，1987年11-12月，頁134；堪薩斯城納爾遜．阿特金斯藝術博物館收藏一對官帽椅（編號 64-4/13 A、64-4/13 B），券口正中造卷草紋，其一載於《Orientations: Special Issue for the Chinese Art Collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art》，2008年11-12月，卷1，編號8，頁63，圖版12；另有一椅與堪薩斯城例相似，藏於北京清華大學藝術博物館。