Page 18 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION

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A SIX-POST HUANGHUALI CANOPY BED, JIAZICHUANG

17TH CENTURY

The mat top is set into a rectangular frame above a narrow waist and plain apron continuing
to the square legs with incurving hoof feet. The posts are joined on all sides by openwork
railings of quadrilobed lattice and and openwork panels of foliate scroll above shaped panels
with beaded borders. A slender horizontal stretcher reinforces the two back posts leaving an
opening at front.
86æ in. (220.5 cm.) high, 85º in. (209 cm.) wide, 43¿ in. (109.6 cm.) deep
$200,000-300,000

PROVENANCE

Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York.
Else Sackler Collections, New York.
Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.

EXHIBITED

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Arts of China,
February 10, 1993 - 2005.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Pavilions and Immortal
Mountains, September 27, 1987-February 28, 1988.

Canopy beds appear to have been closely infuenced by architectural construction. They are the only
form of furniture noted in the Ming dynasty carpenter’s manual, Lu Ban Jing, to have used auspicious
measurements that were also employed for buildings. It was common practice to use drapery to create
a private world within a closed curtain, and examples can be seen in Ming and Qing woodblock prints.
As noted by Sarah Handler in her discussion of the form in Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical
Furniture, London, 2001, pp.139-58, canopy beds occupied a central and dominant position in the Ming
dynasty household. During the daytime they would be used, with curtains drawn, for entertaining guests,
often seated around small items of furniture designed to be accommodated on the beds. At nighttime,
the curtains would be closed and the bed would become a private world of rest and intimacy.
明末清初 黃花梨架子床

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