Page 54 - Christie's, Tang Collection of Important Chinese Ming Furniture May 31 to June 1, 2023 Hong Kong

~2709

A VERY RARE HUANGHUALI Semi-circular tables are recorded in the Ming carpenter’s
manuals, Lu Ban Jing, suggesting they were once more popular
DEMI-LUNE TABLE, than the few surviving examples would seem to indicate.
YUEYAZHUO A demi-lune table and two outline drawings are illustrated by
Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II,
QING DYNASTY, 17TH-18TH CENTURY p. 118, B125-B127. Compare to a huanghuali demi-lune table of
similar form and proportion but with lobed brackets formerly in
The semi-circular panel top is set into a broad frame with the Mr. and Mrs Robert P. Piccus Collection, sold at Christie’s
‘ice-plate’ edges above a narrow waist, supported on three New York, 18 September 1997, lot 33.
slender, inward-curving cabriole legs flaring to hoof feet, There are two types of semi-circular table, the first were made
each carved with cloud scrolls on the sides and an upturned in pairs with the rear legs half the width of the front leg, so
flower bud in front, the rounded apron with a gently curving when joined together all legs were the same width; and the
outline joined to the legs by archaistic dragon-form brackets. second type here produced as a single table with the rear legs
the same width as the front leg. These tables were meant to be
34 1/4 in. (87.6 cm.) high, 41 1/8 in. (104.5cm.) wide, displayed on their own as seen in the woodblock print (fig.1).
20 7/16 in. (52 cm.) deep The current lot belongs to the second type.

HK$1,800,000-2,500,000
US$240,000-320,000

P R O V E NAN CE
Ho Cheung, Hong Kong

fig.1 Detail of Ming dynasty woodblock
print illustration to Xihu erji
圖一 明代《西湖二集》木刻版畫插圖
Side view
側面

A CONNOISSEUR’S STUDIO