Page 50 - Christie's, Tang Collection of Important Chinese Ming Furniture May 31 to June 1, 2023 Hong Kong

Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture notes
that bookcases such as these are used for both display and
storage and are often called shjia or shuge both of which mean
bookcase but because objects other than books were placed
upon them, he refers to them as ‘open shelf stands’. These
open shelf stands take the form of four simple uprights with
horizontal shelves the full width of the piece, sometimes, as is
the case here, with a three-sided gallery that outlines a shelf
called an anquankou (partitioned openings). Both elaborate
and simple designs emanate from the Ming dynasty. When
the shelves are divided and are placed at different heights and
are different lengths, although their decoration may be simple,
they date from the Qing dynasty. This is borne out by the
famous set of paintings in the collection of the Palace Museum,
Beijing, The Twelve Beauties of the Yuanmingyuan that date
from the Kangxi period, or more specifically 1709–1723. For a
comprehensive discussion of these paintings see Early Qing
Furniture in a Set of Qing Dynasty Court Paintings by Tian
Jiaqing (Orientations, January 1993).
Of the ‘open shelf stands’ or bookcases known, nearly all
the hardwood (rather than lacquer) examples have drawers.
Sarah Handler in the Winter 1993 Journal of the Museum of
Classical Chinese Furniture, quoting from George Kates Chinese
Household Furniture, suggests that the common term for
drawers chouti implies that they are “pullable trays” and that
they would be taken from the bookcase to the table which, of
course, had no drawers.
No other pairs of ‘open shelf stands’ or bookcases are known
although sets must have existed as Wen Zhenheng suggests in
his late Ming publication Zhang wu zhi jiao zhu (The Treatise on
Superfluous Things) that bookcases should be “7 ft high and 14
ft broad” with the often quoted advice to “avoid putting books
on the bottom shelf, where they will be spoiled by damp”, taken
from Chinese Furniture by Craig Clunas.

此對架格四面平式，四足，取橫版三層。最上層背後及兩側
設矮欄，欄柱間飾壸門式圈口牙子。餘下兩層四面空敞，底層
正及側面裝素牙條。造型整體秀麗勻稱，空靈舒朗。

櫃架類家具，常置於書房。王世襄於《明式家具研究》中寫
道此類架格除放置書籍外，亦會用來放置文玩書畫，並兼以
陳設功用。

A CONNOISSEUR’S STUDIO