Roseberys London achieved a standout result in its Asian Art Part I sale on 4 November 2025, when a pair of exceptionally rare Chinese huanghuali continuous yoke-back armchairs realised £600,000, excluding buyer’s premium. The chairs far exceeded their pre-sale estimate of £20,000–£40,000, marking the highest price of the auction and underscoring sustained global demand for top-tier classical Chinese furniture.
Lot 117 — Pair of Huanghuali Armchairs
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century
The finely crafted armchairs — known as nanguan mao yi — are constructed from well-figured huanghuali timber, a wood revered for its rich tone and prized in Chinese furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Each chair is designed with continuous yoke-back frames formed from square members with gently convex exteriors. A stepped crest rail rises above an elegant S-shaped splat, while the back posts sweep fluidly into the rear legs. The tapering front posts support curved arms that transition seamlessly into the front legs, all above a hand-woven seat panel and plain stretchers accented by understated aprons and spandrels.
Dimensions: 112cm high, 61cm wide.
Provenance: The Adler Family Collection
The chairs originate from the distinguished collection of Solomon Adler (1909–1994), a noted British-born economist and scholar.
Adler was born in Leeds to a Jewish family with Belarusian roots and studied economics at Oxford and University College London before relocating to the United States in 1935. Joining the U.S. Treasury’s Division of Monetary Research and Statistics the following year, he worked closely with the influential economist Harry Dexter White. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1940, Adler was appointed Treasury representative to China, serving there from 1941 to 1948 — the period during which he assembled his important collection of Chinese furniture and works of art.
Adler resigned from U.S. government service in 1950 and returned to Britain, lecturing at Cambridge University, before relocating permanently to China in the early 1960s. He spent the remainder of his life in Beijing, passing away in 1994. Before leaving the U.K., Adler entrusted his possessions to his brother — father of the present consignor — who maintained close ties with China, first visiting in 1965 and returning several times following the fall of the “Gang of Four” in 1977.
