Page 30 - Christie's Asian Art Auctions PARIS December 2019

PROPERTY FROM A IMPORTANT FRENCH PRIVATE COLLECTION
法國重要私人珍藏

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RARE ET IMPORTANTE TABLE D'AUTEL EN Nowadays this form is called by its descriptive name qiaotouan, or
HUANGHUALI, QIAOTOU'AN "everted end recessed leg table," but the late Ming style-maker Wen
CHINE, CIRCA XVIIEME SIECLE Zhenheng termed it bizhuo, or "wall table," as it was commonly used
against a wall to display works of art or to hold oferings.
Le long plateau aux extrémités évasées repose élégamment sur un
bandeau sculpté en bas-relief de dragons archaïsants confrontés. Les The current table is a remarkable example of late Ming furniture,
deux pieds rectangulaires légèrement évasés en partie basse sont not only because of the fne and precise workmanship, but also
rehaussés d'un décor ajouré de dragons volant parmi des rinceaux due to its perfectly balanced dimensions and fne timber used in its
feuillagés. construction.
Hauteur: 95,5 cm. (37¬ in.) ; Longueur: 266 cm. (104æ in.) ; Various examples of similar tables are published, where the openwork
Profondeur: 39 cm. (15¡ in.) panels at the ends are very fnely carved with dragons, phonenix
€200,000-400,000 US$230,000-440,000 and other mythical creatures. See for example a jichimu qiaotouan
£180,000-350,000 formerly from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection
illustrated in Wang Shixiang et al., Masterpieces from the Museum of
Classical Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 112-3, no. 53, and
PROVENANCE: sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 1996, lot 59; and again
With Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes, Paris, in the 1980s.
at Sotheby's New York, 14 September 2011, lot 126. Compare also
A RARE AND IMPORTANT HUANGHUALI, ALTAR TABLE, a qiaotouan with phoenix spandrels exhibited in at the Hong Kong
QIAOTOU'AN Museum of Art, In Pursuit of Antiquities, Thirty Fifth Anniversary
CHINA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in
the Catalogue, no. 242; and a pingtoauan with phoenix spandrels
約十七世紀 黃花梨龍紋翹頭案 illustrated by G. Wu Bruce, A Choice Collection, Chinese Ming
來源：法國重要私人珍藏，于1980年代購自法國古董商 Furniture, Hong Kong, 2011, pp. 98-99. A huanghuali table in the
Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes Minneapolis Institute of Arts with more elaborately carved phoenix
spandrels is illustrated by R. Jacobsen and N. Grindley in Classical
Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis,
1999, no. 42.
Refer to S. Handler's article, "Side Tables, a Surface for Treasures and
the Gods," in Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations,
1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 200-9, where she discusses the
role of this type of table, both as a side table as well as a domestic
altar table

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