Page 79 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

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A HUANGHUALI SEAL CHEST, GUANPIXIANG Boxes such as the present one were typically designed for use on
18th century the scholar’s desk, where they would have held a number of seals
The chest of rectangular shape with a flat top opening to a shallow as well as the other trappings necessary to make seal impressions.
single tray, above a pair of well-figured, single-panel doors revealing These containers, however, were also employed by women and likely
seven drawers fitted with baitong pulls, the chest mounted with a held their cosmetics. A similar seal chest to the present example is
circular lockplate and a ruyi-form clasp, the sides set with bail handles, depicted on a table top in an illustration titled ‘Reading a Letter at the
the whole raised on a flat base with corner mounts, the vividly-grained Cosmetic Table’, included in a woodblock edition of the ‘Romance
wood of a rich reddish-brown. of the Western Chamber’, dating to the Wanli period (1563-1620).
32cm (12in) high x 33.5cm (13 1/8in) wide x 23cm (9in) deep. Compare with a similar huanghuali seal chest, 18th century and fitted
with seven drawers, illustrated by T.Liu, Arts from the Scholar’s Studio,
£12,000 - 15,000 Hong Kong, 1986, p.257 fig.252. See also a 17th century huanghuali
CNY110,000 - 130,000 chest from the Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii, illustrated by
S.L.Little and J.Jensen, ‘Chinese Furniture in the Honolulu Academy
十八世紀 黄花梨官皮箱 of Arts. The Frederick Mueller Bequest’, in Chinese Furniture. Selected
Articles from Orientations 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p.63, fig.15.
Provenance: a British private collection A related huanghuali chest with lobed circular mounts, 17th century, and
another with square and lobed mounts, 17th/18th century, which were
來源：英國私人收藏 sold at Christie’s New York, 16th September 1999, lots 68 and 60.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.