Page 152 - Bonhams Chinese Art NYC Nov 9 2017

Desks with drawers, such as the present lot, are
rare in Chinese furniture as customarily, writing
implements and other scholarly objects were stored
in brush pots, trays or separate cabinets. Drawers
do not appear in China in the configuration as the
present lot until the late 17th century, which have
led some scholars to suggest that the desk with
drawers was a design influenced by the western
desk. However, other scholars argue that the use
of desks with drawers was a logical evolution
developing from the need for additional storage
space beneath a writing surface; compare a
huanghuali straight form narrow table with three
concealed drawers, Ming dynasty, illustrated by
Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture – Ming
and Early Qing Dynasties, Bangkok, 1986, pl.97.
The use of a writing desk with drawers was certainly
familiar during the 18th century as shown in chapter
81 of the 18th century novel The Dream of the Red
Mansions (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢), when Baoyu sits
at a small huali desk with a drawer into which his
attendant puts paper, ink brush and inkstone.

Compare with a related huanghuali five-drawer
desk, 17th century, illustrated in Chinese Furniture:
One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and
Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996,
pp.182-183, no.70.

See a hongmu three-drawer desk, 18th-19th
century, which was sold at Christie’s New York,
16 March 2017, lot 659.

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