Chinese Folding Side Chair

A folding chair dressed in tortoiseshell camouflage, ready for a very civilized ambush.

This folding side chair is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the late 19th century. It is bamboo. Once China slowly opened to visiting diplomats and businessmen, a trickle of antique furniture leaving the country became a flood that lasted through the 1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Tall rectangular back made of horizontal ribs, mottled orange and near-black. The seat is a thick rounded slab with the same blotchy glow. Crossed folding legs carry two fat round rungs, and a small pin shows at the pivot. It is 15.75 inches long, 22 deep and 26.5 high.

Folds flat when the party ends, which is thoughtful.