QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Details

AN IMPOSING HUANGHUALI PLANK TOP PEDESTAL TABLE
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
The massive single-plank top is supported by heavy pedestals, each with a flush two panel top set into a square frame with concave moulding at each corner. Each outside face of the square legs and base stretchers is carved with a deep concave moulding, with an additional, smaller thumb-groove running along the inside edge, and the rectangular aprons and spandrels have a raised rectangular bead. The pedestals are raised on short bracket feet.
36 1/2 in. (92.7 cm.) high, 93 1/2 in. (237.5 cm.) wide, 16 3/4 in. (42.5 cm.) deep

Literature

R. Hatfield Ellsworth, N. Grindley and Anita Christy, Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, vol. 1, New York, 1996, pp. 178-179, no. 68

R. Hatfield Ellsworth, Essence of Style: Chinese Furniture of the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998, pp. 80-81, pl. 25

Exhibited

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Essence of Style: Chinese Furniture of the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, 17 January - 6 September 1998

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory, tortoiseshell and crocodile. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

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Lot Essay

Surviving examples of plank-top pedestal tables are quite rare, and compared to other types of tables, relatively few extant examples are known. The method of demountable construction is most often seen on these early examples with thick and heavy plank tops, as it made the transportation of such tables much easier. In addition, plank-top pedestal tables appear to be quite rare, owing to the fact that their easily dissembled members can become separated over the years, the planks in particular often sacrificed for repairs.

Compare the pedestals of the present table with a separated pair, one of which is illustrated by Gustave Ecke in Chinese Domestic Furniture, Rutland, VT, 1962, pl. 92, no. 71, and the other, which is now at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, illustrated by Roger Ward and Patricia Fidler in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 345; the Ecke/Nelson-Atkins pair share the same thick, square-sectioned members but lack the elegant beading and moulding found on the current examples. See, also, a slightly smaller example published by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 117, no. B124 (which the author notes was once approximately 250 cm. wide but was reduced), and note, also, the massive example from the collection of Jonathan and Jessika Auerbach sold at Christie’s New York, 21-22 March 2013, lot 1323.

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