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Chajiansun wine table Huanghuali wood and green stone Late Ming (1573–1644)
Estimate
38,000,000 - 38,000,000 HKD
bidding is closed
Description
The frame top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon construction with a figured green stone top supported by a lacquered board panel with three dovetailed stretchers underneath. There are exposed tenons on the short sides of the mitred frame. The edge of the frame moulds downward and inward to end in a double moulded edge. The rectangular legs with beaded edges are cut to house the exquisitely shaped , beaded-edged apron with leaf-shaped spandrels. They are made of one piece of wood and set flush with the legs in an chajiansun, elongated bridle join with mitred shoulders. The legs, decorated with liangzhuxiang double beading in the centre, gently flared to becomes leaves, pads and extended supports at the feet. Between the legs are two rectangular stretchers, decorated with mouldings at all four corners.
Provenance
Beijing Hardwood Furniture Factory
Exhibited
Macau, 2003, The Macao Museum of Art, “The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture”
Hong Kong, 2007, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, “Feast by a wine table reclining on a couch: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture III”
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”
Hong Kong, 2007, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, “Feast by a wine table reclining on a couch: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture III”
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”
Literature
Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1985, plate 80
The Macao Museum of Art, The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic
Chinese Furniture, Macau, 2003, pp. 22 – 23
Grace Wu Bruce, Feast by a wine table reclining on a couch: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture III, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 62
– 65
Grace Wu Bruce, Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr S Y Yip collections, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 30 – 31
The Macao Museum of Art, The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic
Chinese Furniture, Macau, 2003, pp. 22 – 23
Grace Wu Bruce, Feast by a wine table reclining on a couch: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture III, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 62
– 65
Grace Wu Bruce, Grace Wu Bruce presents a choice selection of Ming Furniture from the Dr S Y Yip collections, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 30 – 31
Catalogue Note
Similar example:
The only known similar but slightly smaller example is in a private collection in Johannesburg, published in Grace Wu Bruce, Chinese Classical Furniture, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1995, plate 13, and also in Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture Through My Eyes, The Forbidden City Publishing House, Beijing, 2015, p. 73
The only known similar but slightly smaller example is in a private collection in Johannesburg, published in Grace Wu Bruce, Chinese Classical Furniture, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1995, plate 13, and also in Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture Through My Eyes, The Forbidden City Publishing House, Beijing, 2015, p. 73
Chajiansun wine tables are considered to be one of the most beautiful forms in Ming furniture designs. Surviving example of tables with this flush bridle join, chajiansun, are very much fewer in numbers compared to recessed leg tables with standard bridle joins, jiatousun, presumably because the flush bridle join, almost always associated with exquisite spandrels and feet pads, is a much more complex joinery system to make.