Page 140 - SOTHEBYS MARCH 18 AND 19 2025

Fig 1. Attributed to Leng Mei (active 1677–1742), Woman at Her
Dressing Table, ink and color on silk, hanging scroll
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
圖1 冷枚(款) 梳妝仕女 設色絹本 立軸 © 大都會藝術博物館，紐約

The construction of the present table differs significantly In Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. I, Hong Kong,
from typical side tables (tiaozhuo), with a tall and 1990, p. 118, Wang Shixiang states that high-waisted tables
pronounced waist below the top frame, and ‘giant’s arm’ like the present example can resemble the bases of buildings
braces joining the legs to the underside of the frame. Both or pedestals, thus lending an additional sense of solidity.
features provide the table with additional support and allow Grace Wu Bruce, in The Best of the Best: The MQJ Collection
it to support considerable weight. The joinery of the waist, of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2017, p. 114, states that tables of
in particular, was designed to help displace weight, similarly this construction, particularly those with molding around the
to a buttress in architecture, and the braces served a similar top frame, are only found in the Suzhou region.
function to stretchers but provide a more secure connection
to the top frame. It is suggested, therefore, that tables of this Compare the present table with a very closely related
form were intended to display heavy scholar’s rocks. Indeed, example from the collection of John and Julia Curtis, sold at
a painting entitled “Woman at her dressing table,” attributed Christie’s New York, 22nd March 2019, lot 1669; the Curtis
to Leng Mei (1677–1742) in the collection of the Metropolitan example, which achieved $927,000, lacked the inset-burl
Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2024.180) (Fig. 1) found in the present example. Grace Wu Bruce illustrates a
shows a table of comparable construction, although with a slightly larger, burl-inset example of similar form (which she
stone-inset top rather than burl and without the high waist of calls a painting table) in ibid., pp 112-115.
the present table, supporting scholar’s rock, brush washer,
and other accoutrement.

276 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744