A HUANGHUALI DISPLAY CABINET, LIANGGEGUI MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY | 明十七世紀 黃花梨亮格櫃

Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 417.

香港佳士得1994年10月31日，編號417

This tall cabinet is notable for its sober and yet sophisticated elegance, which draws attention to the vivid patterns of the huanghuali door panels. The cabinet was left undecorated save for the beaded edges of the aprons and the cylindrical bars on the sides of the open shelf. The latter echo the latticework often found on Ming and Qing dynasty doors and windows, and served to create interesting shadows when light filtered through.

Known as lianggegui among modern Beijing cabinet-makers, cabinets with a high open shelf first appeared around the mid-to late Ming dynasty. Generally reserved for the scholar's studio, where the top shelf was used to display curious and rare antiquities, cabinets of this type are mentioned by Wen Zhenheng, the 17th century scholar and arbiter of refinement, in his Zhang wu zhi [Treaties on Superfluous Things]. Here he informs that cabinets (chu) had to be 'suitable for the display of antique bronzes, jades and curios'.

Display cabinets with vertical bars on the sides of the open shelf are unusual. For related examples see a pair of cabinets, with shaped aprons instead of bars, in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, illustrated in Stephen L. Little and James Jensen, 'Chinese Furniture in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Frederic Mueller Bequest', Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 61, pl. 10; a slightly larger cabinet in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 183; and another, attributed to the 18th century, sold at Christie's New York, 24th March 2011, lot 1372.

此櫃秀雅挺拔，櫃門取黃花梨造，木紋流暢。牙條邊沿起陽線，亮格兩側作直欞，此外不著雕飾。明清建築多以欞條飾門窗，流光透影，別有趣致。

櫃頂設格，敞闊無門，明中後期始見，京城匠師名之曰「亮格櫃」。亮格櫃多置文房，格內可陳奇珍雅件，明末文人雅士文震亨於《長物志》云，櫥「以置古銅、玉、小器為宜」。

亮格兩側作直欞者，實不多見，可比一對作例，不作透欞，乃作壼門券口，檀香山藝術博物館藏，見 Stephen L. Little 及 James Jensen，《Chinese Furniture in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Frederic Mueller Bequest》，刊於《Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999》，香港，1999年，頁61，圖版10；另一例稍大，北京故宮博物院藏，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集・明清家具（上）》，香港，2002年，圖版183；及一例，傳十八世紀，售於紐約佳士得2011年3月24日，編號1372。