Page 128 - Bonhams Chinese Art NYC Nov 9 2017

Gustav and Yuho Ecke; image courtesy of Orientations

These magnificent cabinets are exceptionally rare and exhibit the highly See a related pair of tapered huanghuali cabinets, early to mid-16th
refined craftsmanship of the late Ming dynasty. This is particularly century, of slightly smaller dimensions, also with high legs but with
evident in the four matching door panels cut from the same timber, upward-flip spandrels and ribbing, in the Nelson-Atkins Museum
demonstrating an identical grained and whirling pattern, as well as of Art, Kansas City, illustrated by S.Handler, Austere Luminosity of
in their timeless elegance of perfect proportions and simplicity. In his Chinese Classical Furniture, Los Angeles, 2001, p.251, fig.15.12 (the
article ‘Notes on Chinese Furniture’, the renowned scholar of Chinese Nelson-Atkins pair of cabinets were only known through Gustav Ecke’s
furniture Dr Gustav Ecke, wrote with regard to the present cabinets Chinese Domestic Furniture, no.92, pl.113, until they were found in the
that the stilted feet in the noble pieces of the Marchese Taliani de early 1980s by Eskenazi Ltd., London, and purchased by the museum;
Marchio give an unusual distinction to this type of cabinet. see G.Eskenazi and H.Elias, A Dealer’s Hand: The Chinese Art World
Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, p.247,
In the Ming tradition, furniture was selected from books of drawings at no.186); for another related example of pair of cabinets, late 16th/ 17th
the cabinetmaker’s workshop and made to the proportions required. century, also of smaller dimensions, see R.H.Ellsworth, et al, Chinese
This would have led to certain unique personal preferences in stylistic Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Martin and Raymond Hung
choices, such as the higher beaded oval feet in the present lot, Collection, New York, 1996, pp.190-191, no.74; see also a single
which lent it its ‘unusual distinction’. Subtle variations give individual cabinet of similar form, but of much smaller size, illustrated in Wang
character to different tapered cabinets. The present lot’s verticality is Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture - Ming and Early Qing Dynasties,
emphasised by higher legs, the grooving and beading of major upright Bangkok, 1986, pl.141.
supports, and long lock plates. The slight splay of the legs, create the
impression of upward movement, and further underscores how the A single huanghuali sloping-stile wood-hinged cabinet, late Ming
Ming craftsmen injected dynamism and movement into a static object. dynasty, but of smaller size, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 6 April
2016, lot 104; see also a huanghuali square corner tapered cabinet,
fangjiaogui, 17th/ 18th century, which was sold at Christie’s New York,
21 March 2013, lot 930.

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