Chinese Yoke Back Side Chair: Water Buffalo Top Rail

A slender back and a plain seat, finished in a deep dark tone.

This yoke back side chair is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the late 19th century. It is elm wood. 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. Black-brown chair with a flat top rail and a long vertical splat between thin posts. The seat is a flat framed panel with worn edges, a shallow apron runs beneath, and stretchers join the legs in a square. It is 20 inches long, 14.5 deep and 45 high.

Spare in line, but sound in every joint.