A TIELIMU LOW-BACK CHAIR, MEIGUIYI
Mid-Qing Dynasty
With rounded corner top rail and arm rests, hidden mortise and tenoned to the stiles running through the seat to become the front and back legs, the back apron plain and resting on a horizontal stretcher tenoned to the back rails and front posts and to the seat by two pillar struts, the seat of standard mitre, mortise-and-tenon construction drilled for a soft seat with two transverse stretchers and joined to the shaped and beaded apron extending on the sides of the front rails and resting on the foot rest, the plain, u-shaped side and back aprons set above stepped stretchers. 82.5cm 32 1/2in) high x 66.4cm (26 2/8in) wide x 42.3cm (16 5/8in) deep.
Footnotes:
清中期 鐵梨木玫瑰椅

The origins of low back arm chairs can be traced back to the Song dynasty, when chairs crafted from a single piece of bamboo featured back and side panels of equal height; see R.Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, p.66, nos.15-18 on page 66; see also S. Handler, 'Roses, Bamboo and the Lowback Armchair', in Orientations, vol.29, no.7, 1998, p.12.

Compare with a related pair of huanghuali meiguiyi chairs, 17th/18th century, which was sold at Bonhams New York, 12 September 2016, lot 6008.

Some wear and minor stains, some small chips and some infilled areas; some cracks and scratches; sections possibly reinforced; some wear to feet; one leg with a later wood extension.