Large table screen, Huanghuali wood and dalishi marble, Late Ming (1573 – 1644) Late Ming (1573 – 1644)

Estimate

380,000 - 380,000 HKD

bidding is closed

Description

This piece is beautifully modeled, the two base supports edged with drum shapes on either side, deep curvilinear aprons, a pair of openwork inset panels and a well figured, dalishi marble evoking mountains and clouds.

Exhibited

Hong Kong, 1995 – 1996, Hong Kong Museum of Art, “In Pursuit of Antiquities: Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society”
Washington D.C., 1997 – 2001, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Literature

Hong Kong Museum of Art, In Pursuit of Antiquities: Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 304
Grace Wu Bruce, Chan Chair and Qin Bench: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture II, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 154 – 155
Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture Through My Eyes, The Forbidden City Publishing House, Beijing, 2015, p. 273

Catalogue Note

Similar example:
Grace Wu Bruce, A Choice Collection Chinese Ming Furniture, Hong Kong, 2011, pp. 12 - 15 for a similarly constructed table screen of about the same size

Table screens are contracted versions of large floor screens, their method of making often identical to their large counterparts. Table screens are divided into two groups, those with removable panels and those whose panels are fixed to the base. This piece is of the latter type, a smaller version of the large floor screens often depicted in woodblock illustrations to Ming publications.
A very similar table screen with inset dalishi marble is illustrated in the seventeenth century novel Jinpingmei.