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Shanghai - North China, Shanghai, 1930

The three-drawer altar coffer is a masterpiece of late Ming dynasty Compare a related huanghuali three-drawer coffer, circa 1550 – 1600,
furniture making, displaying an outstanding choice of huanghuali in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by C.Clunas,
timber and exceptional craftsmanship. This is aptly demonstrated in Chinese Furniture, London, 1997, p.84; a further example, but of
the restrained balance allowing the superb timber the pride of place simpler design, Ming dynasty, from the Tianjin Museum of History, is
within the powerful geometric design formed by the delineation of illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture - Ming and
the drawers and legs, the top and beading, flanked by the subtle Early Qing Dynasties, Bangkok, 1986, pl.156; see also a related coffer,
naturalistic design. Ming dynasty, illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Two Decades of Ming
Furniture, Beijing, 2011, p.190; two further related examples, 17th
Three-drawer coffers would have played a prominent part in Ming century, are illustrated by S.Handler, Ming Furniture in the Light of
and Qing dynasty interiors due to their impressive size and were used Chinese Architecture, Berkley, 2005, p.174; for a further discussion
mostly for the storage of items such as bedding and clothes. Thanks on coffers, see C.Everts, ‘The Enigmatic Altar Coffer’ in Journal of the
to the text and woodblock illustrations in the Ming novel Jin ping mei Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Autumn 1994, pp.29-44.
(金瓶梅), we know that such coffers could form a part of a woman’s
dowry and as such were also known as ‘dowry chests’ (jiadi 嫁底).

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