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Lot Essay
The simplicity and elegance of form of this cabinet is in the classical Ming style. The combination of design, perfect proportions and precise craftsmanship lend the cabinet a refined elegance and sense of balance and stability. The very subtle splay in its design creates a graceful and pleasing profile, which is enhanced by the unusual and rare design of the paneled doors.
Cabinets constructed with paneled doors are a design feature more commonly found on carved lacquer and painted lacquer prototypes. A gilt-decorated black lacquer cabinet with paneled doors, decorated with pairs of writhing dragons on the larger panels and a dragon chasing a flaming pearl on the narrow panel, dated to the Wanli period, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 53 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 208-9, pl. 177. Another similarly constructed red lacquer cabinet, carved with dragons chasing flaming pearls on a yellow ground, currently in the Oesterreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, is illustrated in M. Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1979, p. 102-103, pls. 139-141.
Hardwood examples of this form drew inspiration from these lacquer cabinets. A rare pair of huanghuali, huamu, nanmu, and boxwood cabinets, illustrated by M. Flacks in Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 166-67, exhibits similar door composition—huanghuali door frames enclose two panels of attractively grained huamu set on either side of a narrow huanghuali panel carved with a stylized floral motif. Wang Shixiang illustrates two examples in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 153, D27 and D29. Of the two illustrated, the composition of the doors of D29 compares most closely to the present cabinet in overall construction and design. Both cabinets have doors with alternating narrow panels and larger floating plain panels and added pairs of stretchers on the narrow sides. Lacquer cabinets frequently have pairs of stretchers on the narrow sides to provide needed strength and stability. However, in huanghuali and hardwood examples, this construction element is unnecessary and instead becomes a decorative element in the overall design.
A related sloping-stile huanghuali cabinet, dated to the seventeenth century, with openwork narrow panels set against a huamu-burl panel was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1667.
Cabinets constructed with paneled doors are a design feature more commonly found on carved lacquer and painted lacquer prototypes. A gilt-decorated black lacquer cabinet with paneled doors, decorated with pairs of writhing dragons on the larger panels and a dragon chasing a flaming pearl on the narrow panel, dated to the Wanli period, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 53 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 208-9, pl. 177. Another similarly constructed red lacquer cabinet, carved with dragons chasing flaming pearls on a yellow ground, currently in the Oesterreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, is illustrated in M. Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1979, p. 102-103, pls. 139-141.
Hardwood examples of this form drew inspiration from these lacquer cabinets. A rare pair of huanghuali, huamu, nanmu, and boxwood cabinets, illustrated by M. Flacks in Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 166-67, exhibits similar door composition—huanghuali door frames enclose two panels of attractively grained huamu set on either side of a narrow huanghuali panel carved with a stylized floral motif. Wang Shixiang illustrates two examples in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 153, D27 and D29. Of the two illustrated, the composition of the doors of D29 compares most closely to the present cabinet in overall construction and design. Both cabinets have doors with alternating narrow panels and larger floating plain panels and added pairs of stretchers on the narrow sides. Lacquer cabinets frequently have pairs of stretchers on the narrow sides to provide needed strength and stability. However, in huanghuali and hardwood examples, this construction element is unnecessary and instead becomes a decorative element in the overall design.
A related sloping-stile huanghuali cabinet, dated to the seventeenth century, with openwork narrow panels set against a huamu-burl panel was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1667.