Page 264 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art
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This table is impressive for its large size, the top Dr Gustav Ecke, illustrated in George N. Kates,
of which is made with a single framed floating Chinese Household Furniture, New York, 1948,
panel. Recessed-leg tables with double side pl. 30; and a slightly wider example illustrated
stretchers were produced with raised or straight in Sarah Handler, Ming Furniture in the Light of
ends and in varying sizes for painting and viewing Chinese Architecture, Berkeley, 2001, p. 162
long handscrolls, such as the present piece, to below.
small and mobile side tables. It is the success of
the basic design with its pleasing proportions and Tables of this elegant form were widely made in
balance of the rectilinear and curvilinear elements the Ming and Qing dynasties and appear often
that allow for such wide adaptation. on contemporary paintings and woodblock
illustrations, where they are shown used in
A similarly proportioned huanghuali table was different settings and for a variety of purposes.
sold in our London rooms, 11th November 2015, A long recessed-leg table for painting is included
lot 11; one was sold twice in our New York rooms, in the 16th century painting Elegant Gathering in
23rd March 1999, lot 94, and 23rd March 2004, the West Garden, by You Qiu, a detail of which is
lot 564; another was sold at Christie’s New illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, ‘Ming Furniture.
York, 16th September 1998, lot 76, and again at Some Examples of Fakes and Forgeries and
Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot 4076; their Methods of Detection’, Chinese Furniture.
and a fourth table with brass supports at the Selected Articles from Orientations, 1984-1999,
feet, from the collection of A. Preston Moore Sr. Hong Kong, 1999, p. 111, pl. 14, together with a
and Jr., was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th detail of a Ming woodblock illustration depicting a
November 2012, lot 2028. See also a slightly table of this type being used as an altar, pl. 15.
smaller table of this type from the collection of
262 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
