Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1550-1600 (circa)
Materials:earthenware
Technique:moulded, lead-glazed,
Subjects:furniture/woodwork
Dimensions:Height: 19.60 centimetres
Description:
Green-glazed earthenware funerary model of a folding armchair. This model ‘jiao yi’ [folding armchair] has a horseshoe back with outwardly curving ends, centre and arm supports. The front seat frame is supported by the angled inner legs and the back seat frame is attached to the outer legs which have a foot rest between them. Its seat has crescent-shaped indentations on either side. The armchair is covered with a green lead glaze, and the seat shows traces of a red-brown pigment with the texture of woven cane suggested by regular cross-hatching.
IMG
![图片[1]-model BM-1937-0716.135-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/43/mid_00262544_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Related models of folding armchairs made in metal, stone and wood have been excavated from middle and late Ming tombs. Such chairs appear frequently to have been placed in Mingtombs belonging to members of the aristocracy and scholarly elite. Two models of folding armchairs, one of bronze and one of tin were excavated in the Ding Ling, the tomb of the Wanli emperor (1573-1619). Another similar model of a folding armchair with a textile covering, carved from stone, was excavated from a tomb at Tongliang county, Sichuan. This tomb belonged to Chen Pingzhou, who died in the first year of Wanli (1573); the stone chair was discovered with a small rectangular table laden with an assortment of model food dishes, which suggests that folding armchairs were used for dining. We know from woodblock-print illustrations that they were used by scholars when seated at their desks. Such chairs were commonly used as appropriate seats for important people. They were also used for travelling, and perhaps in the context of burial this was most important as the tomb occupant journeyed about the spirit world.As Clunas has pointed out, folding chairs were sufficiently familiar in the Ming period to be the sole type of chair included in an illustrated child’s primer of objects of daily life, first published in 1436 and reprinted throughout the dynasty. Full-size folding armchairs made of ‘huang huali’ wood, with brass mounts and cane seats, also dating to the sixteenth century survive in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Such chairs were not an innovation of the Ming era: similar chairs were already in use by the tenth century.A green-glazed folding chair model comparable to the present piece is in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.
Materials:earthenware
Technique:moulded, lead-glazed,
Subjects:furniture/woodwork
Dimensions:Height: 19.60 centimetres
Description:
Green-glazed earthenware funerary model of a folding armchair. This model ‘jiao yi’ [folding armchair] has a horseshoe back with outwardly curving ends, centre and arm supports. The front seat frame is supported by the angled inner legs and the back seat frame is attached to the outer legs which have a foot rest between them. Its seat has crescent-shaped indentations on either side. The armchair is covered with a green lead glaze, and the seat shows traces of a red-brown pigment with the texture of woven cane suggested by regular cross-hatching.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Related models of folding armchairs made in metal, stone and wood have been excavated from middle and late Ming tombs. Such chairs appear frequently to have been placed in Mingtombs belonging to members of the aristocracy and scholarly elite. Two models of folding armchairs, one of bronze and one of tin were excavated in the Ding Ling, the tomb of the Wanli emperor (1573-1619). Another similar model of a folding armchair with a textile covering, carved from stone, was excavated from a tomb at Tongliang county, Sichuan. This tomb belonged to Chen Pingzhou, who died in the first year of Wanli (1573); the stone chair was discovered with a small rectangular table laden with an assortment of model food dishes, which suggests that folding armchairs were used for dining. We know from woodblock-print illustrations that they were used by scholars when seated at their desks. Such chairs were commonly used as appropriate seats for important people. They were also used for travelling, and perhaps in the context of burial this was most important as the tomb occupant journeyed about the spirit world.As Clunas has pointed out, folding chairs were sufficiently familiar in the Ming period to be the sole type of chair included in an illustrated child’s primer of objects of daily life, first published in 1436 and reprinted throughout the dynasty. Full-size folding armchairs made of ‘huang huali’ wood, with brass mounts and cane seats, also dating to the sixteenth century survive in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Such chairs were not an innovation of the Ming era: similar chairs were already in use by the tenth century.A green-glazed folding chair model comparable to the present piece is in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.
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