“Official’s Cap” Armchair

CultureChinese

Date17th century

MediumHuanghuali wood

DimensionsOverall: 47 1/2 × 23 × 17 1/2 inches (120.65 × 58.42 × 44.45 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number64-4/13 B

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionOne of a pair of huanghuali yokeback armchairs with a well-shaped yoke sitting upright on the rear stiles with upturned rounded ends, flattened in the middle to receive the S-shaped splat. The rear stiles are tenoned into the underside of the yoke and pass through the seat frame to form the back legs. The S-shaped arms, also with rounded ends, are supported on a S-shaped support which also continues through the seat frame to form the front legs. There are shaped spandrels beneath the handle that tongue and groove into the posts. There is a tapering S-shaped brace in the center of the arm which is tenoned into the side seat frame. The seat frame, drilled for soft seat construction, but now with a hard seat with two, replaced, transverse stretchers has replaced trimming strips glued but not pegged to the matting. The outside of the seat frame is of gentle downward curved shape with a concave shoulder below. The full aprons on the front and sides have a raised beaded edge and are mitred and interlock half-lapped and tongue and grooved into the inside edge of the legs with a short-eared apron cut from one piece to the back. The center of the horizontal apron to the front is carved with an interlocking floral motif. The stretchers, arranged in ascending heights, in the bubagao style, are through-tenoned had have short-eared aprons to the front footrail and side stretchers. 17th century.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

This chair sported different decorations depending on the day. The owners would have placed a cushion on the chair for comfortable daily use. On special occasions, they would drape colorful, celebratory textile covers over the chair. Carved from solid wood, the top rail of this chair resembles the stiff ribbons on the caps of civil officials — hence the name “official’s cap” chair. Their slight curves have a practical function: to suspend a textile panel.

Provenance

James P. (1917-2001) and Blanche Speer, II, Kansas City, MO, by 1964;

Purchased from James P. and Blanche Speer, II, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1964.

Published References

Laurence Sickman, Chinese Domestic Furniture: A New Gallery Opened 17 November 1966, Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri (Kansas City, Mo.: The Museum, 1966), fig. 3 (repro.).

Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ching Dynasties (New York: Random House, 1971), 239, pl.10 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Simplicity and Subtlety: The Decorative Arts in China” Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 61, no. 6 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Chinese Classic Furniture,” Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1977-78, vol. 42 (London, The Society, 1979), 1-12, pl. 3e, 3d (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 346 (repro.).

Orientations, Special issue for the Chinese art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. 39, no. 8 (November/December 2008), 63, fig. 12 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 366, no. 257 (repro.).

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