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Marble doors table cabinet, Huanghuali wood Late Ming to early Qing (1600 – 1700)
Estimate
380,000 - 380,000 HKD
bidding is closed
Description
The metalware is made of baitong beautifully and intricately worked hinges, plates and pulls. Some pieces are decorated with hongtong and huangtong inlays.
Exhibited
Phoenix, Arizona, 1996 – 1999, Phoenix Art Museum “Art and the Chinese Scholar: the S. Y. Yip Collection”
Literature
Grace Wu Bruce, Chan Chair and Qin Bench: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture II, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 180 – 181
Catalogue Note
Similar example:
There is a quantity of table cabinets that has survived but none glamorous as this example with picturesque marble doors
There is a quantity of table cabinets that has survived but none glamorous as this example with picturesque marble doors
These table cabinets were used as dressing cases by both men and women to store toiletries, jewellery and other valuables. They were also used on desks for the storage of stationery, writing implements and seals. These pieces are called guanpi xiang, official boxes, but in fact, their construction is more like a cabinet than a box.
The lid opens to reveal a tray-like compartment and there are five drawers behind the two doors below. The doors inset with beautifully figured dalishi marble; the picturesque surfaces used for the insides, to be seen when the case is in use with the doors open. The base is carved to form a curvilinear silhouette.