Page 89 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

Displaying a remarkably elegant shape and complexity of design, An example of huanghuali table, late 17th century, fitted with a drawer,
noted in the pierced waist fitted with an unusually large drawer and the is illustrated by M.Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture, New York, 1997,
fine reticulated ‘crackled ice’ designs serving as footrest, the present p.189.
table combines ingenuous construction and linear proportions into a
single piece of furniture. See also a huanghuali table, Ming dynasty, featuring a similarly-
shaped reticulated design for the waist, illustrated by Wang Shixiang,
Large tables, such as the present example, would have occupied a Connoisseur of Chinese Furniture. Ming and Early Qing Dynasties,
central position in a scholar’s studio. Their broad surface could easily vol.2, Hong Kong, 1990, p.94, no.B77.
accommodate a variety of decorative objects and the accoutrements
typically associated with the scholar, such as a brushes, inkstones, Huanghuali tables displaying such elegant reticulated hongmu lower
water pots, brush pots and small scholar’s rocks. panels as the present example are exceptionally rare. Conveying a
dramatic visual effect, the openwork design, known as binglieshi,
Conveying a sense of structural lightness, the high waist of the or ‘ice-crackled’ decoration, was described in Ji Cheng’s influential
table provides added strength, making the presence of stretchers book, ‘The Garden Treatise’, Yuanye, compiled in 1631, as the ‘best
redundant. design for window panels for the simple yet most elegant lines.
The auspicious design heightened the rich luminosity of the costly
With its high waist and a large drawer, the present table illustrates huanghuali wood and varying light sources created an intriguing
how variations within a classic design could be formed through subtle network of shadows throughout the day.
changes and refinement of details. The drawer was probably used
to store writing material and is cleverly hidden below the table frame. A huanghuali high-waisted table, with similar proportions as the
Drawers are often associated with 17th-18th furniture construction, as present example and dated to the 16th-17th century, is illustrated by
they first entered the Chinese furniture vocabulary with the introduction Kai-Yin Lo in Classical and Vernacular Chinese Furniture in the Living
of Western-style furniture. Environment, Hong Kong, 1998, pp.148-149, no.26.