17TH CENTURY

Details

A Rare Huanghuali Side Table, Tiaozhuo
17th Century
The rectangular paneled top supported on a straight waist and arched, cusped aprons, the long aprons centered with scrolling tendrils flanked by a pair of lively striding dragons, themselves flanked by another pair of backward-facing dragons, the side aprons also with confronted dragons amid scrolling vines, the beading extending from the apron down the cabriole legs terminating in outward-coiling ball feet, the shoulders with elephant-mask terminals, the wood an even, dark reddish hue
35¾in. (91cm.) high, 687/8in. (175cm.) wide, 23¼in. (59cm.) deep

Provenance

Christie's, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 94, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection.

Literature

C. Evarts, 'Recent Acquisitions and Projects of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture', Orientations, January 1992, p. 89, fig. 11.
Wang Shixiang and C. Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chinese Art Foundation, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 110, no. 52.

Lot Essay

It is unusual to find a table of this model and size with legs of this form. Cabriole legs are more commonly found on smaller pieces such as incense stands, kang tables and stools. In her article, 'The Incense Stand and the Scholar's Mystical State', S. Handler traces the cabriole leg from the S-curved legs found in ritual bronze vessels of the Shang dynasty, Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Winter 1990, pp. 4-10.

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