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Lot Essay
This is the only known surviving box-form platform, although a nanmu platform in three modular sections, dating to the 18th century, is illustrated by Kaiyin Lo in Classical and Vernacular Chinese Furniture in the Living Environment, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 98-9. The latter example can be set side-by-side to form a single daybed, or may be used as smaller seating platforms, stands or low tables.
According to Wang Shixiang, "Additional Examples of Classic Chinese Furniture", Orientations, January 1992, p. 46, this type of platform with cusp openings was popular during the Tang and Song dynasties, but as these early examples would have been made of softwood few have survived. In Austere Luminosity of Chinese Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001, pp. 107-113, S. Handler also traces the history and origins of the platform from the Han dynasty through to the Sui and Tang, and discusses rectangular box-like constructions with ornamental oval cutouts that had cusped or scalloped upper edges, which initially served as honorific seats for officials and religious dignitaries, particularly during religious ceremonies.
Handler also explains that by the Ming dynasty, platforms with four legs had come into favor, op. cit., p. 116. A huanghuali flush-sided corner-leg luohanchuang, dated to the Yuan or early Ming dynasty, is illustrated by Tian Jiaqing, Notable Features of Main Schools of Ming and Qing Furniture, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 10-13. However, this form is not of the traditional box-form construction, because the legs rest on a continuous base stretcher. This is also the case with the huanghuali luohanchuang in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, illustrated by Handler, op. cit., p. 115, fig. 8.13, which was originally a platform to which railings were later added.
Early examples of these box-form platforms are depicted, however, in paintings, such as the handscroll by Qiu Ying (?-1552) in the Shanghai Museum entitled Portrait of Ni Zan depicting Ni Zan seated on a platform with arched openings, illustrated by Xie Zhiliu et al., Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty: Masterworks of Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 90; and on a detail of a banner found at Dunhuang, in the British Museum, Scenes from the Life of the Buddha: Sakyamuni in Discussion, dated to the 8th/9th century, painted in ink and color on silk, illustrated by S. Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Furniture, op. cit., p. 110, fig. 8.6. Tian Jiaqing, op. cit., pp. 16-7, also provides line drawings of platforms as depicted in classical Chinese paintings.
It is interesting to note that the stretchers and frame members of this platform are incised with 'Buddhist treasure' emblems as guides for reassembly, rather than the more usual characters or numerals. The symbols include coins, ingots, rhinoceros horns and rhombuses, all auspicious objects alluding to wealth, good fortune and victory.
According to Wang Shixiang, "Additional Examples of Classic Chinese Furniture", Orientations, January 1992, p. 46, this type of platform with cusp openings was popular during the Tang and Song dynasties, but as these early examples would have been made of softwood few have survived. In Austere Luminosity of Chinese Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001, pp. 107-113, S. Handler also traces the history and origins of the platform from the Han dynasty through to the Sui and Tang, and discusses rectangular box-like constructions with ornamental oval cutouts that had cusped or scalloped upper edges, which initially served as honorific seats for officials and religious dignitaries, particularly during religious ceremonies.
Handler also explains that by the Ming dynasty, platforms with four legs had come into favor, op. cit., p. 116. A huanghuali flush-sided corner-leg luohanchuang, dated to the Yuan or early Ming dynasty, is illustrated by Tian Jiaqing, Notable Features of Main Schools of Ming and Qing Furniture, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 10-13. However, this form is not of the traditional box-form construction, because the legs rest on a continuous base stretcher. This is also the case with the huanghuali luohanchuang in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, illustrated by Handler, op. cit., p. 115, fig. 8.13, which was originally a platform to which railings were later added.
Early examples of these box-form platforms are depicted, however, in paintings, such as the handscroll by Qiu Ying (?-1552) in the Shanghai Museum entitled Portrait of Ni Zan depicting Ni Zan seated on a platform with arched openings, illustrated by Xie Zhiliu et al., Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty: Masterworks of Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 90; and on a detail of a banner found at Dunhuang, in the British Museum, Scenes from the Life of the Buddha: Sakyamuni in Discussion, dated to the 8th/9th century, painted in ink and color on silk, illustrated by S. Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Furniture, op. cit., p. 110, fig. 8.6. Tian Jiaqing, op. cit., pp. 16-7, also provides line drawings of platforms as depicted in classical Chinese paintings.
It is interesting to note that the stretchers and frame members of this platform are incised with 'Buddhist treasure' emblems as guides for reassembly, rather than the more usual characters or numerals. The symbols include coins, ingots, rhinoceros horns and rhombuses, all auspicious objects alluding to wealth, good fortune and victory.