In Ming Dynasty, there used to be a kind of official’s hat armchairs with substantially slanted arms, and the junction between the arms and the rear legs is higher than that of common armchairs and closer to the top rail, and this is why it looks slanted forward. Armchairs of this form and structure are quite popular in areas in the south of the Yangtze River; they share similar features but are made of various materials through complex or simple processes.
Smoking pipe joints have been adopted to connect the top rail to the rear legs and the arms to the front legs, which reflects the delicateness of this piece of armchair. The back is the ternary form of a mortised-and-tenoned structure, with curling limbed dragon relief on the top and brightening-the-feet opening at the bottom, and in the middle are inlayed a piece of well-textured panel. The convex molding with flat edges of the seat drawer makes the whole armchair an outstanding work among all official’s hat armchairs, looking impressive and graceful, but succinct.
