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Lot Essay
Aromatics and incense have been used by the Chinese since the Han dynasty, for both secular and religious purposes. Censers containing incense were used to freshen interiors, and were placed upon tall delicate stands. Though the name, incense stand or incense table, implies a specific use, Ming-dynasty prints show the incense stand was used for numerous purposes, including the display of scholar’s rocks, flowers and various decorative objects.
The present table was inspired by lacquer prototypes dating to the Song dynasty or earlier. These incense stands and tables feature a tall waist, delicately cusped aprons, and elongated legs. A related fifteenth-sixteenth century red lacquer incense stand of larger size, and raised on a rectangular base, is illustrated by G. Bruce in Chinese Classic Furniture: Selections from Hong Kong and London, 2001-2002, pl. 2.
Few tables of this design remain, and even fewer in huanghuali, including a very similar example with three cartouches on the waist in the Royal Ontario Museum, illustrated by R. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1970, no. 64, and again as a line drawing in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 94, B77. A burl-inset huanghuali table of similar design and construction in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is illustrated by R. D. Jacobsen and N. Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 110-111, no.35.
The present table was inspired by lacquer prototypes dating to the Song dynasty or earlier. These incense stands and tables feature a tall waist, delicately cusped aprons, and elongated legs. A related fifteenth-sixteenth century red lacquer incense stand of larger size, and raised on a rectangular base, is illustrated by G. Bruce in Chinese Classic Furniture: Selections from Hong Kong and London, 2001-2002, pl. 2.
Few tables of this design remain, and even fewer in huanghuali, including a very similar example with three cartouches on the waist in the Royal Ontario Museum, illustrated by R. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1970, no. 64, and again as a line drawing in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 94, B77. A burl-inset huanghuali table of similar design and construction in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is illustrated by R. D. Jacobsen and N. Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 110-111, no.35.