Compound cabinet with stand, Huanghuali wood Late Ming (1573 – 1644)

In two sections consisting of a small top cabinet on a stand resting on a larger bottom one. The top cabinet of mitre, mortise, tenon, tongue-and-grooved flush floating-panel construction has four square uprights, pyramid-joined to the top with one tenon exposed, and mortised and tenoned to a stand of mitered mortise and tenon frame construction with exposed tenons on the short sides, and carved on the front and the sides in a curvilinear shape with beaded-edge and decorated with stylized scrolling tendrils. The top cabinet is set recessed from the stand which is the same size as the top of the bottom cabinet. Of standard, mitre, mortise, tenon, tongue-and-grooved, flush, floating panel construction, the top of the bottom cabinet has exposed tenons on the short sides. The four uprights are pyramid-joined to the top with exposed tenons. The side panels and the removable doors on both the top and bottom cabinets have the same mitre, mortise, tenon, tongue-and-grooved, flush, floating-panel construction. Below the doors in the main cabinet are two mitered stretchers with a tongue-and-grooved panel in between. Below this is a beaded-edge, curvilinear apron carved with stylized scrolling tendrils. Similarly decorated aprons are on the sides. The inside of the top cabinet has one removable shelf, the bottom one with one permanent central section with two drawers. The baitong circular hinges are surface-mounted by four round headed pins, have extensive wear on the tubular sections while the central circular plates, also surface-mounted have two openings for the lock receptacles and shaped door pulls with huangtong open work inlay.

Singapore, 1997 – 1999, Asian Civilisations Museum, "The Chinese Collection"
Washington D.C., 2000 – 2002, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Hong Kong, 2012, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, "Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr S Y Yip collections"

Wang Shixiang, 'Additional Example of Classical Chinese Furniture', Orientations, Hong Kong, January 1992, p.47
Grace Wu Bruce, Chan Chair and Qin Bench: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture II, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 106 – 107
Grace Wu Bruce, Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr S Y Yip collections, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 44 – 45
Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture Through My Eyes, The Forbidden City Publishing House, Beijing, 2015, p. 214

Similar example:
Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Peking, 1944, reprinted by Charles E. Tuttle, Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, 1962, plate 134, piece 106 for an example of a compound cabinet with stand, but of different proportion to the present piece, now in the Guimet Museum, Paris

This compound cabinet differs from the classic type in that the top piece is finished with a base stand which is the same size as the bottom cabinet. 
The development of this design from the classic compound cabinet was probably to facilitate a dual usage allowing the top piece to be placed on floor level when required. This would explain why there are so few surviving examples as separate placements; this meant they were easily dislocated.