Page 270 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

Skilfully constructed from matching jumu
boards with a striking grain pattern, these
cabinets are particularly rare for their large
size and construction as they lack the central
stile (shuangan) between the doors. Cabinets
of this form are referred to as yuanjiaogui,
literally translated as ‘round-corner cabinet’,
and were known in the Ming dynasty as gui or
chu, as well as yichu, ‘clothes cupboard’, a term
used in the 15th century carpenter manual Lu
Ban jing [Classic of Lu Ban]. Functionality and
aesthetics are cleverly achieved through the
harmonious balance of flat surfaces and round
members together with the four recessed stiles
that slope gently outwards from the top corners
almost imperceptibly. As George N. Kates notes
in Chinese Household Furniture, New York,
1948, p. 32, these cabinets display the Chinese
craftsmen’s ability to ‘handle inflexible wood
in such masterly fashion that, almost unaware,
one receives the impression of design in a living
medium’.

A similar pair of cabinets in nanmu was sold at
Christie’s New York, 17th September 2008, lot
149; a slightly smaller huanghuali cabinet was
sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2008, lot
248; and a smaller pair, from the Hung collection,
is illustrated in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese
Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi
and Raymond Hung Collection, Hong Kong, 2005,
pl. 3. See also a pair of similar design but with
a central stile, in the Nelson Atkins Museum of