A 'huanghuali' waistless daybed (Ta), Ming dynasty, 17th century | 明十七世紀 黃花梨馬蹄足榻

The restrained elegance of the present daybed, ta, is achieved through its simianping or 'four corner’s flush' construction where the legs are set flush to its top. It is considered one of the most attractive and classic features of Ming furniture. This type of design is sometimes also referred to as houzhuo, in the Chinese literature, literally meaning ‘robust, clumsy’ which is considered a quality in the eyes of Ming furniture collectors. The simplicity of the lines, highlighting the beauty of the wood grain conveys here a sense of refinement and understated wealth.

Compare a huanghuali daybed with its lower section similarly constructed with a 'four corner's flush' structure, illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, Chinese Classical Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 22. Another daybed, ta, of related waistless construction and size but with humpback stretchers joining the legs, is published in Sarah Handler, 'Outstanding Pieces in Private Rooms: Chinese Classical Furniture in New American Collections', Orientations, January 1993, fig. 4. and was sold in our New York rooms, 16th March 2016, lot 227, and again at Bonhams London, 13th May 2021, lot 11, from the H Collection. See also a simianping bench of the same form without stretchers sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2022, lot 158, from the personal collection of Sir Joseph Hotung.

The raised platform is the oldest and most fundamental of furniture forms. As early as the Shang dynasty, bronze platforms were used not simply to support rare and precious bronze ritual vessels but also to emphasize their importance by raising them up above the ground. By the Han dynasty examples of ta in ceramic and stone have been found in tombs indicating that the form was in regular use and that it indicated social status as illustrated in numerous banquet scenes where only the most significant figures are shown seated on raised platforms. A miniature of this form was found among other models of furniture in the Ming dynasty tomb of Pan Yuan Zheng (1589) now in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Art, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1990, pl. 1.3a. For further discussion on the form see Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 105-158.