87.6×204.2×138.7 cm. 34 1/2×80 3/8×54 5/8 in.

The elegant proptions that result from the slender members of these chairs create a number of inherent problems. The narrow, yoke-shaped top rail turns through a ninety-degree angle to receive the tenon of the rear posts. However, because both the mortise and tenon are small, the join has been strengthened with a brass strap inlaid into each end of the top rails, a technique also used to reinforce the joins of the arms and front posts. The seat frame, which maintains the same delicate proportions, is drilled for soft-seat construction. The seat has been replaced. The square-section legs have identical mitered and half-lapped aprons on all sides. Stretchers, also square in section, are affixed at the same height, giving the lower section of the chairs a solid, box-like form but resulting in structural weakness because the two small tenons have to overlap one another. Although the tenons have been taken through the legs and are exposed on each face to give as much strength to the leg as possible, there are signs that surface-mounted strapwork, now removed, was once used to reinforce the join. The leg terminates in a vigorous low horsehoof foot.
Chairs with hoof feet are extremely rare. Lacquered chairs with hoof feet are known, most of somewhat ponderous style or eccentric shape (see, for example, Beurdeley 1979, p. 107, fig. 145, Cescinsky 1922, pls. XLIIa, XLIVa and b, Dupont 1926, pl. 29, Nelson-Atkins 1993, p.347). Only one other pair of unlacquered huang hua-li continuous yoke-back chairs with a similar delicate profile is known (Ellsworth 1971, p. 112, no.5). On the Ellsworth chair the legs are square in section, as on the Hung chairs, but the stretchers are in ascending heights. The remaining hardwood chairs with hoof feet are a pair of massive yoke-back armchairs in the Dr. S. Y. Yip collection (Bruce 1991, p. 24, no.2) and four small horse-shoe-back armchairs in the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture (Handler 1991a, p. 48, figs. 10a and b).
——摘自《洪氏所藏木器百圖》

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