Page 48 - Classical Chinese Furniture from Heveningham Hall may 28 2021 hk.pdf

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A RARE HUANGHUALI RECESSED-LEG
TABLE, PINGTOU’AN
LATE MING-EARLY QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
Beautifully proportioned, with attractively figured single-
panel top set within the wide, rectangular frame with beaded,
thumb-grooved edge above plain aprons and spandrels, the
whole raised on thick legs of rounded section joined by pairs of
stretchers.
31 ⅞ in. (81 cm.) high, 77 ½ in. (197 cm.) wide,
22 ¼ in. (56.5 cm.) deep
HK$4,000,000-5,000,000 US$520,000-650,000

PROVENANCE
M.D. Flacks, Ltd., New York
Christie’s New York, 21 March 2013, lot 924
The Heveningham Hall Collection

明末清初 黃花梨平頭案
來源
馬克斯・弗拉克斯，紐約
紐約佳士得，2013年3月21日，拍品編號924
赫維寧漢莊園珍藏
The recessed-leg table is amongst the most well-known and
immediately recognizable forms found in classical Chinese
furniture construction. Tables of this elegant and restrained form,
with the graceful splay of the legs, trace their origins to furniture
design of the Song dynasty, and several variations on this type are
known. The basic proportions were adapted to make large painting
tables, smaller tables, benches and stools. Tables of the size of the
present table are generally referred to as painting tables.
One of the most impressive features of the present table is the
long, single-panel floating top. Tables using large sections of
huanghuali, such as seen here, are often considered early examples,
as the precious material became harder to acquire in subsequent
years. The use of single-panel tops and thick sections for aprons,
stretchers, and legs are also testament to the fact that the table
would have been quite expensive, even at the time of manufacture,
and therefore would have likely been in the household of a wealthy
literati family.
For a similar, although larger huanghuali recessed-leg table, see
the 16th/17th century example illustrated by Wang Shixiang and
Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese
Furniture, Chicago, 1995, p. 114, no. 54, later sold at Christie’s, New
York, 19 September 1996, lot 75. Evarts also points out that this
basic form of table has been repeatedly depicted in paintings, as
well, from as early as the Song dynasty (960 - 1279). See, also,
Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese
Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp.
122-23, no. 40, for a similar example of this type dated to the 17th
century, although slightly longer, it is of approximately equal depth.

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