17TH-18TH CENTURY

Large single-panel huanghuali tables, such as the present example, are extremely rare. The panel is textured and enlivened by the active and beautifully-figured grain which nicely compliments the spare, economic lines typical of this form. Tables of this large size would also be ideal for the appreciation of a painting. A large painting table of slightly smaller proportions (77 3⁄8 in. wide) with openwork panels between pairs of stretchers is illustrated by Robert Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1970, p. 155, pl. 51, 51a and 51b. Another similarly proportioned recessed-leg table, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was sold in Christie’s New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September 1996, lot 16.