Page 60 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

PROPERTY FROM THE RICHARD MILHENDER COLLECTION
143 Y W
A VERY RARE AND LARGE CHINESE WELL-FIGURED The linen press is the rarest form encountered in the canon of Chinese
HUANGHUALI TWO-SECTION FOUR-DOOR LINEN PRESS export furniture. It was a luxury item only suited for the largest
Circa 1760 apartment of the most senior director in Macau or the trading Hongs of
Supported on a raised base with plain bracket feet, the lower Guangzhou (Canton). For a similar-form cabinet made for the Chinese
section with beveled floating panels of square shape, below a slightly domestic market, see Gustave Ecke’s, Chinese Domestic Furniture,
protruding divider below vertical rectangular doors with further Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, 1962, p.134, no. 106 a.
beveled floating panels, all beneath a dentil cornice, the upper doors
opening to reveal four sliding shelves, the sliders and drawers in For a pair of huanghauli and padouk wood bureau cabinets, with
camphor wood with huanghuali fronts, the lower doors revealing similar solid-timber upper cupboard doors in an indistinguishable
three sliding shelves above two drawers with Chinese brass swan- fine-figured wood, see Wooley and Wallace, Salisbury, England, UK,
neck handles, internal lock-plates to all doors. 8 January 2020, lot 169.
69 1/4in (163.2cm) high; 46 1/2in (118cm) wide; 22 1/2in (57cm)
deep Most George II and George III linen presses have large panel doors
in the upper section whilst the lower section have visible drawers.
$20,000 - 30,000 This Chinese interpretation, in a somewhat linear Chippendale style
with dentil cornice, can be compared to a Chippendale linen press
十八世紀 黃花梨四門雙層立櫃 at Paxton House, Berwickshire, which also employs molded panels
to the doors and the choice of exemplary timber for the panels in the
doors, see C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale,
Provenance London 1978, p.139, pl.249.
Robert Seaver, New York, February 1985
The Richard Milhender Collection, Boston, Massachusetts, The form here, however, more readily equates to the large 17th
1985-present century Huanghuali compound cabinets with two separable parts
used at court, see W.Yi, et al., Daily Life in the Forbidden City, New
Exhibited York, 1988, p. 133, pl. 184. For another pair see Christie’s, New
Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, (now the Peabody Essex York, 19 - 20 September 2013, lot 1566.
Museum), Chinese Export Art: Highlights of a Private Collection,
1986-1988 See also a small Ming dynasty huanghuali compound wardrobe in
four parts illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture,
出處： Hong Kong, 1986, no. 148; and another two-door cabinet with
紐約 Robert Seaver，1985 年二月 similarly figured huanghuali wood, Robert Hatfield Ellsworth,
麻州波士頓 Richard Milhender 藏，1985 年至今 Nicholas Grindley and Anita Christy, Chinese Furniture, One Hundred
Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York,
展出記錄： 1996, pp. 196-197, no. 77.
麻州塞勒姆，皮博迪博物館《中國外銷藝術：私人收藏精粹》
，1986-1988 Fitted with shelves and oftentimes with drawers, their generous size
made them ideal for storing long scrolls, garments and bolts of fabric.
The upper cabinets, accessed only via a short ladder, would have
contained out-of-season clothing, or infrequently used items, not
unlike its western counterpart.
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