A HUANGHUALI ALTAR TABLE, QIAOTOUAN, 17TH CENTURY | 明末清初 黃花梨芝仙祝壽紋翹頭案

Purchased from Hei Hung-Lu, Hong Kong, late 1980s/early 1990s.

於上世紀80年代末/90年代初購自香港黑洪祿

In high-ranking Chinese households of the late Ming and Qing dynasties, tables of such impressive proportions with upturned ends demonstrated the status and wealth of their owners. Known among modern cabinet makers as qiaotouan, tables of this type are discussed in Wen Zhenheng’s (1585-1645) influential Zhang wu zhi [Treatise on Superfluous Things], the late 17th century guide to refined taste. Here, Wen recommended that such tables were placed underneath a painting and even suggested that “one may place such things as fantastic rocks, seasonal flowers, or miniature tray-landscapes; but avoid garish objects such as red lacquerware”. Although Wen warned against the use of excessive carving, the lively openwork panels of lingzhi on this table are balanced by the simplicity of the apron and spandrels.

Compare an altar table of larger proportions and with more exuberantly carved spandrels, from the Florence and Herbert Irving collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, pl. 14.16, together with a much larger example in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, pl. 14.17; and a tieli wood example, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, Beijing, 2008, vol. 1, pl. 306.