Page 44 - Christies THE LAI FAMILY COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART

(another view) 911
A RARE NANMU AND HUAMU TRAVELING
42 BOOKCASE, TUSHUXINGGUI
17TH CENTURY

The top, back and sides are constructed from
single huamu panels. Those on the front are
set into nanmu door frames, and open to
reveal the interior with two shelves. The
whole is set into a nanmu platform base.
27¿ in. (68.9 cm.) high, 24√ in. (63.2 cm.)
wide, 15Ω in. (39.4 cm.) deep

$60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE:

Property from the Lai Family Collection.

Cabinets of this type were likely to have been
flled with books, scrolls, or paintings. To
facilitate transport and to protect the traveling
case from moisture or insects, the cabinet was
raised on a ftted base and upright frame and
would have been carried at either end of a long
carrying pole. Consequently, the stress placed
on the frame required a particularly strong
construction, reinforced with inlaid hardware.

Compare a larger version of this bookcase, built
without an upright carrying frame, from the
Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Piccus Collection, sold
at Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot
75. See, also, a much taller huanghuali medicine
cabinet (58 in.), in the collection of Dr. R. J. C.
Hoeppli, illustrated by G. Ecke, Domestic Chinese
Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 135, fg.
107, where Ecke illustrates the chest with the
doors open revealing numerous drawers. On the
present example, the placement of the bottom
shelf suggests the presence of a drawer, which is
now missing.

A very similar pair of huanghuali traveling
bookcases, formerly from the collection of the
Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, was sold
at Christie’s New York, 19 September 1996,
lot 17. See, also a slightly smaller traveling
bookcase illustrated by R. Jacobsen, Classical
Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute
of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 192-3, pl. 70.
For a discussion of metal fttings on bookcases,
see an article by Curtis Evarts, “Uniting Elegance
and Utility: Metal Mounts on Chinese Furniture”,
JCCFS, Summer 1994, pp. 27-47.

明末/清十七世紀
楠木嵌樺木圖書行櫃