Chinese Yoke Back Chair

Tall-backed side chair whose single curved splat leans like a bored clerk.

This yoke back chair is from Shanxi Province, China, and is contemporary. 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. Narrow back with a swelling center splat and a gently curled top rail. Seat is a framed panel of woven-looking tan texture within a dark border. Square-section legs hold box stretchers all around. Blackened finish worn brown at the edges. It is 19.5 inches long, 16.5 deep and 46.5 high.

Upright in every sense, and a little stern about it.