Page 76 - Classical Chinese Furniture from Heveningham Hall may 28 2021 hk.pdf

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AN EXTREMELY RARE HUANGHUALI 清十八世紀 黃花梨套方紋圍子四柱架子床
FOUR-POSTER CANOPY BED, 來源
JIAZICHUANG 陳勝記，香港，2015 年 4 月
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY 赫維寧漢莊園珍藏
The soft mat platform is enclosed by a rectangular frame and 床圍子的花樣為「套方式」，重複排列的方形紋，寓意長壽無疆，與南
narrow waist above plain beaded aprons and thick inward-curving 方園林窗櫺的設計見共通點，可參考明代計成著《園冶》。四柱架字床
legs of square section terminating in hoof feet. The four posts are
joined on three sides by a railing enclosing ruyi-form struts, above a 比六柱架子床存世量少，而有可能並非為嫁妝而造（如拍品編號 2807，
lattice-work railing holding squares. The posts are also joined at the 2814）。四柱架子床甚為珍罕，一例同為重複排列圓形紋圍子的黃花梨
top by similarly decorated railing on all four sides. 仿竹式四柱架子床，拍賣於香港佳士得，2012 年 5 月 30 日，拍品編號
90 ⅛ in. (229 cm.) high; 55 ½ in. (141 cm.) wide; 4075。另外兩例不同年代樣式的四柱架子床，拍賣於香港蘇富比，2015
82 ⅝ in. (210 cm.) deep 年 4 月 5 日，拍品 2867 號，成交價 HK$10,280,000；葉承耀醫生攻玉山
房舊藏一張，拍賣於香港蘇富比，2015 年 10 月 7 日，拍品 123 號，成
HK$4,000,000-6,000,000 US$520,000-780,000 交價 $13,880,000。
PROVENANCE
Chan Shing Kee, Hong Kong, April 2015
The Heveningham Hall Collection
Four-poster canopy beds in huanghuali are uncommon and the
interlocked square motif on the present lot was inspired by lattice
panels decorating the greatly admired gardens of Southern China as
illustrated in one of the earliest publications of Chinese garden-scape
designs known as the yuanye, The Garden Treatise. Sarah Handler
mentions that the interlocked patterns symbolize eternal unity and
marital harmony in A Little World Made Cunningly: The Chinese Canopy
Bed, published in Journal of The Classical Chinese Furniture Society,
Spring 1992, p. 11, fig. 9. For another four-poster bed with interlocked
circular braces on the upper part of the railing refer to Wang Shixiang,
Connoiseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. II, p. 134,
C15.
It has been suggested that the four-poster bed was more likely to have
been made for a man's apartment, with its ideal of ‘pleasant refinement
and elegant simplicity without stylish adornment,’ cited by Wen
Zhenhung in his early Ming guide to stylish living, zhangwuzhi, Treatise
on Superfluous Things, in contrast to six-poster beds such as lot 2807
and lot 2814. often a dowry item brought into the marriage with the
bride, was more likely to be made for the women's quarters. Compare
with a huanghuali four-poster bed with denser interlocking loops on
rails imitating bamboo design, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May
2012, lot 4075. Two four-poster beds in huanghuali of different railing
and leg designs have been sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 April 2015,
lot 2867 for HK$10,280,000 and 7 October 2015, Ming Furniture - The
Dr S Y Yip Collection, lot 123 for HK$13,880,000.

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