QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

A six-legged collapsible basin stand of similar construction, also carved with double-lotus finial, but with legs of round-section is published by Wang Shixiang and illustrated in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, no. E41. In his discussion of basin stands, Wang also includes a line drawing of a four-legged basin stand with straight legs of round section, which he describes as the simplest and most common of the type. Few extant hardwood examples have survived due to the fragile design. When folded, their compact nature allowed for easy storage and transport.
Surviving examples with shaped legs, include six-leg huanghuali basin stand with bow-legs, dating to the late 16th-early 17th century in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, published in Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 166-167, pl. 58 and a six-leg huanghuali basin stand of more complex design, published by Gustav Ecke, Domestic Chinese Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 145, fig.120. See, also, a hongmu six-leg basin stand, dated to the 19th century, formerly in the Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2015, lot 1148.