A huanghuali side table with burlwood top and integral shelf 17th / 18th Century

with single-board floating-panel of spectacularly figured nanmu burl (cedar) set with a top-frame with lightly grooved outer edge and squared lip, supported by pairs of recessed legs of rounded section flaring outwards and secured by a plain apron with plain rounded spandrels, and a further floating-panel shelf framed by lateral members edged with squared trim to the rounded sides

A similar huanghuali table with an integral shelf is in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James Biddle, illustrated by R.H. Ellsworth, in Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1970, p. 173, no. 72; another in the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection is illustrated in R.H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, no. 141; and one in Grace Wu Bruce, Living with Ming - the Lu Ming Shi Collection, 2000, no. 28, pp. 120-121, where it is stated that such tables, with almost perfect proportions, are a variation of the classic form of Ming pingtouan tables.

Compare also one sold in these rooms, 5th June 1982, lot 311; and another formerly in The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 1996, lot 29.