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Lot Essay
Compound cabinets combine a large square-corner cabinet with a small upper cabinet. It is not unusual to find cabinets constructed partially, if not entirely, from camphor (zhangmu) which was prized for its ability to repel insects.
Clothing was never hung vertically, but instead robes were folded and laid flat in chests or on shelves. Several cabinets are constructed with folding hinged doors, such as a very rare pair of inlaid huanghuali cabinets located at the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture-Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Chicago, 1968, no. 149, and a pair of huanghuali cabinets in the Victoria & Albert Museum given as part of the Addis Bequest (fig.1). These hinged doors are retained by sliding wedges to allow for the easy removal of the doors so that a court robe could be folded vertically and placed flat on the interior shelf.
The central lockplates on the 'Addis' cabinets are identical to the baitong metalwork and display the same octagonal cloud-form lockplate and double fish-shaped drop handles of the present cabinet. When compared to the 'Addis' cabinets, the 'Piccus' cabinet displays a more elegant and balanced design. The central lockplate is the largest design element and is elegantly paired with a slightly smaller variation on the octagonal cloud-form lockplate of the hinges. A notable feature of the cabinet is found in the sensitive consideration of the size and form of the metalwork in contrast to the blank surface of the attractively-grained huanghuali, seen in the slightly smaller lock-plate and hinges on the upper section compared to those of the lower cabinet.
Clothing was never hung vertically, but instead robes were folded and laid flat in chests or on shelves. Several cabinets are constructed with folding hinged doors, such as a very rare pair of inlaid huanghuali cabinets located at the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture-Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Chicago, 1968, no. 149, and a pair of huanghuali cabinets in the Victoria & Albert Museum given as part of the Addis Bequest (fig.1). These hinged doors are retained by sliding wedges to allow for the easy removal of the doors so that a court robe could be folded vertically and placed flat on the interior shelf.
The central lockplates on the 'Addis' cabinets are identical to the baitong metalwork and display the same octagonal cloud-form lockplate and double fish-shaped drop handles of the present cabinet. When compared to the 'Addis' cabinets, the 'Piccus' cabinet displays a more elegant and balanced design. The central lockplate is the largest design element and is elegantly paired with a slightly smaller variation on the octagonal cloud-form lockplate of the hinges. A notable feature of the cabinet is found in the sensitive consideration of the size and form of the metalwork in contrast to the blank surface of the attractively-grained huanghuali, seen in the slightly smaller lock-plate and hinges on the upper section compared to those of the lower cabinet.