Page 118 - Christies May 2016
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PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTOR
90
A RARE HUANGHUALI GAMES TABLE
18TH CENTURY
The square top is detailed with rounded and beaded edges, with a small shallow drawer to the centre of
each side. The shaped legs are detachable.
32º in. (82 cm.) wide, 30¬in. (77.8 cm.) high
£50,000-100,000 $70,000-140,000
€63,000-126,000
Games tables are a rare form. In the Ming and Qing periods, special games tables were ftted with
various boards and containers for games pieces. Since double sixes, chess and weiqi were all popular
Ming and Qing board games, it was convenient to have all the equipment needed to play them in one
table.
A huanghuali square game table in Dr S.Y. Yip’s collection is illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Dreams of
Chu Tan Chamber and Romance with Huanghuali Wood: The Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese
Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, cat. 28, pp. 82-83. Another square zitan example in the T. T. Tsui Museum
of Art , Hong Kong, is illustrated by Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture,
Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001, p. 201, fg. 12.19.
A huanghuali square games table previously in the Gangolf Geis Collection was sold at New York
Christie’s, 18 September 2003, lot 21.
清十八世紀 黃花梨方桌
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