CHINA, MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE PAIR OF HUANGHUALI LAMPSTANDS, DENGTAI
CHINA, MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY
The upper plate now wired for electricity above shaped openwork spandrels on three sides of the adjustable pole, set into the upright rectangular frame with beaded edge enclosing an attractive carved fretwork panel at the top and openwork shaped beaded panel below, the legs flanked by elaborate upright spandrels set into tall shoe feet flanking shaped beaded aprons
49 ½ in. (125.7cm.) high, 11 ½ in. (29.2 cm.) wide, 14 ¼ in. (36.2 cm.) deep

Provenance

Gustave Ecke (1896-1971) Collection, Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, before 1971.

Literature

G. Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Vermont and Tokyo, 1962, p. 142, pl. 115.
G.N. Kates, Chinese Household Furniture, New York, 1962, pl. 109.
R. H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch'ing Dynasties, New York, 1971, p. 227, pl. 142.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Brought to you by

Gemma Sudlow

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Lot Essay

Compare a pair of adjustable lampstands dated to late seventeenth/early eighteenth century, sold at Christie's, New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September, 1996, lot 49, and now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated in R.D. Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture In the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999, pp. 168-169. no. 59.

For a discussion of adjustable lampstands, their construction and use, see Sarah Handler, "Carriers of Light: The Chinese Lampstand and Lantern," Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Summer 1994, pp. 19-34, and her corresponding chapter in Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, ch. 18, pp. 303-318.

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