Page 264 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A PAIR OF ‘HUANGHUALI’ ROUND-CORNER Several examples of this type are known. Compare the pair
TAPERED CABINETS (YUANJIAOGUI) of huanghuali tapered cabinets, lacking the center stiles,
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY illustrated by Robert H. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture:
One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung
each with rounded projecting four frame members set above Collection, New York, 1996, pl. 75, which are attributed to
the rectangular recessed top panel, joined by four tri-lobed the early 17th century. A huanghuali round-corner tapered
beaded-edged posts at each corner forming the tapered cabinet of smaller size (120 cm) in the collection of the
silhouette, the pair of single panel doors with wooden dowels Minneapolis Institute of Arts, catalogued as 17th century,
fitting into sockets in the upper frame and lower front rail is illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley
and divided by a central stile, all above a paneled lower in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute
section and a plain narrow apron with shaped spandrels, the of Arts, Minnesota, 1999, pl. 52. A pair of tapered cabinets
interior with a shelf suspending double drawers (2) without the lower panel is in the Nelson Atkins Museum
Height 65¾ in., 167.1 cm; Width 32½ in., 82.5 cm; of Art, Kansas City, illustrated in Sarah Handler, Austere
Depth 16½ in., 41.9 cm Luminosity of Classical Chinese Furniture, Berkeley,
California, 2001, pl. 15.12. See also a pair of round corner
PROVENANCE cabinets illustrated in Nancy Berliner. Beyond the Screen:
Collection of a San Francisco Bay Area Gentleman. Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Boston,
Bonhams San Francisco, 10th December 2015, lot 8195. 1996, pl. 27.
The present pair of cabinets, with its clean, elegant lines, ◉ $ 80,000-120,000
represents one of the most popular and successful designs
in Chinese furniture construction, and was widely used in
cabinet making throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Round-cornered cabinets tend to be smaller than square- 清十八世紀 黃花梨圓角櫃一對
cornered examples. The posts splay outward as an ingenious
and effective means of stabilizing the large form. These 來源
cabinets also usually have wood hinged doors and top rails 舊金山灣區私人收藏
that extend beyond the corner posts, as in the present 舊金山邦瀚斯2015年12月10日，編號8195
example. This is probably a vestigial feature of the original
‘post-and-beam’ architectural origin of this form of Chinese
classical furniture, versus the ‘box-frame’ construction of
squared-corner cabinets.

262 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART