17TH/18TH CENTURY

The massive size of the present table suggests that it would have held a place of great importance at the center of an altar, or against the wall of a grand hall. See, for example, the placement of a similar large mother-of-pearl-inlaid recessed-leg table in the Palace of Gathering Excellence, illustrated in Ming Qing Gong Ting Jia Ju Da Guan, Part II, Beijing, 2006, p. 698, pl. 800. Compare, also, a larger (368 cm.) rosewood altar table with nearly identical carving in the trestles, although without everted end flanges, in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 144, no. 124, where it is dated to the Ming dynasty. Another table in yumu of similar size (313 cm.), also carved with ruyi-head spandrels, is illustrated in C.L. Ma Collection: Traditional Chinese Furniture from the Greater Shanxi Region, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 153, no. 57.