Page 18 - Bonhams, The H Collection, Classical Chinese Furniture, May 13, 2021 London

Qiu Ying (1494-1552), ‘Appreciating Antiquities in the Ming, Wanli edition, Collected Illustrations
Bamboo Garden’ of the Three Realms, Utensils, vol.12
仇英(1494-1552), 竹院品古 明萬曆刻本《三才圖會．器用．十二卷》

There were so many city-dwelling ‘hermits’ in the late Ming, Objects that went atop the furniture in a scholar’s studio were
the term became meaningless. the official Xue Gang (b. also extremely important, such as brushpots. Brushpots, as
1561) even complained about how everyone began calling the name suggests, held the scholar’s most important tool:
themselves a mountain hermit and the trend had got out his brush. Brushpots such as Lot 64, with fine ‘eye figures’
of control: ‘Nowadays those debauchees with no rank in caused by natural knots in the wood were highly prized, as
Chang’an, regardless of their talent, all refer to themselves were those made of the rare zitan wood such as Lot 10. Zitan,
as mountain hermits. The people, moreover, have no clue, which is an extremely close-grained wood, comes from an
so they follow the custom’. Xue was referring to those that evergreen tree in tropical regions such as the remote Hainan
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advocated ‘taking eremitage in women.’ However, not all island, Indonesia, and India. Its rarity, however, was not just
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scholars were so debauched; the literatus potter Hao Shijiu, due to the distances involved in sourcing it; the tree itself is
was described as ‘taking eremitage in the potter’s wheel’ for extremely slow growing. A 300-year-old tree might be only ten
example. Other scholars took delight in elegantly furnished meters tall and have a diameter of less than 30 centimetres.
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studios within which to appreciate painting, calligraphy and The Ming empire – far from being cut off from the world – was
the qin. closely connected to international trade.
Furniture in the Ming period became increasingly refined in III) Incense Burners: ‘Illumination through the nose’
style and construction. Manufacturers carved their pieces more
delicately and made panels and arms curve to fit the contours Along with rare exotic woods imported from South-east Asia to
of the body, such as can be seen in horse-shoe-back chairs make this furniture, incense was also highly sought after. Mao
(Lots 52 and 32). Joinery improved, such that tenons or pins Xiang (1611-1693) and his courtesan Dong Xiaowan (1624-1651)
inserted to hold pieces together were no longer exposed to favoured one incense from as far as Cambodia, called ‘Ripe
view. Most striking, though, was a shift to hardwood cut to Yellow’. Incense was used to ‘smoke robes’ that might have
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a thinness that cheaper woods could not tolerate. Fan Lian been too fine to simply wash, but the appreciation of incense
(b.1540), a cultural arbiter of the early Wanli era, registers this was an art in and of itself, worthy of obsession. Naturally, incense
trend in his 1593 book, Notes on What I’ve Seen on the Delta burners and stands too (such as Lots 19, 9, 20 and 35) were an
(Yunjian jumu chao). The taste for fine hardwood came in during important part of the paraphernalia. Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645)
his own lifetime, because such furniture ‘was not to be seen discussed incense burners in chapter seven:
when I was young’. Back then, ‘people made do with square
lacquer tables of gingko wood, but now the wealthy crave The bronze ding and yi vessels of the Three Ages and of
the thin hardwood furniture made in Suzhou.’ The effect was the Qin and Han dynasties and those ceramic vessels
escalation, driving buyers and makers to move to ever more of Guan ware, Ge ware, Ding ware, Longquan ware or
expensive woods such as huanghuali, zitan, cherry and ebony, Xuande ware are objects of connoisseurship and are
even for everyday items such as beds and cupboards. Chairs not convenient for daily use. The most suitable are the
such as Lots 24, 14, and 37 were a particular accomplishment rather larger bronze incense burners dating from the
of Ming furniture makers. Xuande reign (1426-1435), and those cast by the Jiang
family in the Song dynasty are also acceptable. 10

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