Antique Chinese Carved Elm Southern Official's Hat Armchair With Qilin Splat

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A Chinese southern official's hat armchair (nanguanmaoyi) in pale golden elm, with a gently curved crest rail, S-curved back splat, … Read more A Chinese southern official's hat armchair (nanguanmaoyi) in pale golden elm, with a gently curved crest rail, S-curved back splat, and low sweeping arms supported by openwork spandrels and stepped archaistic key-fret posts. The splat carries three decorated panels: a round shou longevity medallion at the top, an incised and ink-filled qilin chasing a beribboned brocade ball at the center, and a pierced floral roundel below. The seat frame sits above a deeply carved openwork apron of interlocking kui-dragon scrollwork, raised on square-section legs joined by stepped box stretchers. Joined throughout with mortise-and-tenon construction and exposed pegs — no screws or nails in the frame.

Note that both oral history from the estate and clues in the chair (joinery, wood age/marks on the underside, etc) indicate that it is well over 120 years old, but we have not independently validated the age.

The southern official's hat armchair takes its name from the winged caps worn by Ming and Qing scholar-bureaucrats, and the form is among the most enduring in Chinese furniture: the curved splat and yoked crest rail were shaped to support the sitter's spine in the upright posture expected of a literatus. Chairs of this type were made in provincial workshops across southern China from the seventeenth century onward, typically in elm, camphor, or another locally available hardwood rather than the tropical huanghuali and zitan reserved for court and elite commissions. The lion-and-brocade-ball motif on the splat is a traditional emblem of joy and protection; the shou roundel above it, a wish for long life. See less