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Lot Essay
Square-corner cabinets of this diminutive size are relatively rare, especially cabinets mounted with flush rather than recessed panels on the doors and sides. A variation of the larger square corner cabinets, which typically measures six feet tall, these smaller cabinets were most likely made to be placed on top of a kang.
Past scholarship has dated cabinets with flush-panel doors and sides earlier than cabinets with recessed panels; however, close examination of dated lacquer examples of similar form and constructed with recessed panels suggest that cabinets of both construction types were produced contemporaneously. See, a gilt-decorated black lacquer medicine cabinet with a rotating interior section inscribed with a six-character Wanli mark (1572-1620) and constructed with recessed panels, illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection, A Treasury of Ming & Qing Palace Furniture, Vol. 1, Beijing, 2007, p. 208-9, pl. 177. See, also, a tianqi and qiangjin lacquer example, similarly constructed with recessed panels, bearing an eight-character Wanli mark and dated to 1607, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated ibid. pp. 202-3, pl. 172.
Past scholarship has dated cabinets with flush-panel doors and sides earlier than cabinets with recessed panels; however, close examination of dated lacquer examples of similar form and constructed with recessed panels suggest that cabinets of both construction types were produced contemporaneously. See, a gilt-decorated black lacquer medicine cabinet with a rotating interior section inscribed with a six-character Wanli mark (1572-1620) and constructed with recessed panels, illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection, A Treasury of Ming & Qing Palace Furniture, Vol. 1, Beijing, 2007, p. 208-9, pl. 177. See, also, a tianqi and qiangjin lacquer example, similarly constructed with recessed panels, bearing an eight-character Wanli mark and dated to 1607, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated ibid. pp. 202-3, pl. 172.