A RARE HUANGHUALI SEDAN CHAIR BOX AND COVER, JIAOXIANG

16th/17th century

Footnotes

十六/十七世紀 黃花梨轎箱

Provenance: Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong
A British private collection, acquired directly from the above

來源：香港嘉木堂
英國私人收藏


The present lot forms part of a distinguished collection of classical Chinese furniture devotedly collected and lived with over the past three decades. The owner had the privilege of learning from the pre-eminent scholar of classical Chinese furniture, Wang Shixiang, as well as from the well-known dealer in classical Chinese furniture, Grace Wu Bruce.

This portable box was designed to fit between the rails of an official's sedan chair, and to be easily removed and taken indoors. This standard form accommodated paper and scrolls in the central section with brushes and seals being placed in the projecting ends. For a discussion about sedan chair document boxes see Grace Wu Bruce, 'Small Portable Treasures', Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Autumn, 1993, pp.57-59. See also a similar huanghuali sedan chair box in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated in Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago, 1999, pp.200-201, no.74. Compare also a similar zitan sedan chair box and cover, Ming dynasty, illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, London, vol.II, 1990, p.173, E23.

A similar huanghuali sedan chair box, jiaoxiang, 17th/18th century, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 3117; and another similar huanghuali sedan chair box, 17th/18th century, was sold at Christie's New York, 13 September 2019.