Pair of continuous horseshoe armchairs, Huanghuali wood, Late Ming (1573–1644) Late Ming (1573–1644)

The arm of three sections, is joined by overlapping pressure-pegged scarf joins. Into this horseshoe-shaped arm are mortised and tenoned the posts and stiles which continue through the seat frame to become the legs. Two round curved stretchers are tongue-and-grooved to the stiles and tenoned into the underside of the arm, forming catapult-shaped supports. The back splat, formed by two shaped uprights, mortised and tenoned into the underside of the arm and the back of the seat frame, has three mitred horizontal stretchers dividing it into four sections. The top section has an inset openwork panel with beaded edge, while the central one with mat-on-board now, was drilled for caning. The third section is another openwork panel with beaded edge and the lowest one with an inset member in the form of a beaded-edged, curvilinear apron. There are two elongated round S-shaped braces supporting the arm. The seat frame of mitre, mortise, and tenon construction was drilled for soft seat construction and now restored with old matting, has one transverse stretcher underneath. There are exposed tenons on the short rails. Between the legs are hump-back-shaped stretchers with pillar-shaped struts, two in front and the back and one on each side. A shaped footrest with an apron underneath joins the legs in front, and on the sides and back are oval stretchers with flattened undersides.

Hong Kong, 1991, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, “The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture”
Singapore, 1997 – 1999, Asian Civilisations Museum, “The Chinese Collection”
Washington D.C., 2000 – 2002, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Hong Kong, 2012, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, “Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr. S. Y. Yip collections”

Huang Cuiwen, ‘Mingchao muyi (Wooden chair of the Ming dynasty)’, Esquire, Autumn 1988, Hong Kong, p. 30
Grace Wu Bruce, Dreams of Chu Tan Chamber and the Romance with Huanghuali Wood: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, pp. 30 – 31
Yip Shing Yiu, ‘Collecting Ming Furniture of Huang Hua-Li Wood’, Arts of Asia, May – June 1991, Hong Kong, p. 119
Grace Wu Bruce, Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr. S. Y. Yip collections, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 36 – 37

Similar example:
Section back Ming chairs are known but there are no similar caned-back horseshoe armchair in published examples to date. The
“catapult-shaped” spandrels below the arm are also very rare, the only other known examples are the horseshoe armchairs in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, illustrated in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ching Dynasties, Random House, New York, 1971, plate 16

One of the three main types of Ming chairs, the horseshoe shape design is uniquely Chinese and have inspired various twentieth century furniture designers to create well-known modern examples.
This pair of chairs, because of their continuous arm-post construction, belong to a rarer type of horseshoe armchairs. Other special features include the catapult-shaped spandrels on the stiles and the four-part back splat with a caned central section.
These chairs, in rich brown colour and dense grain, are made of huanghuali of the best variety.