Chinese Child's Side Chair

A squat chair with a sturdy square seat and a curl at each top corner.

This child’s side chair is from Shanxi Province, China, and dates to the mid 19th century. It is lacquered 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. Small chair in near-black brown with a broad, framed square seat showing a worn center. A flat back rail ends in carved scroll tips, and a vertical splat rises between two posts. A carved apron sits beneath. It is 17 inches long, 15 deep and 28 high.

Short on legs, long on character.