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Lot Essay
The interior of a traveling cabinet can be fitted with either shelves, for the carrying of books or scrolls, or set with drawers and compartments. The present traveling case is the latter, opening to reveal a niche for a devotional figure and various narrow drawers. These cases ensured that the scholar-official or merchant had all the necessary accoutrement for his life on the road.
To facilitate transport and to protect the traveling case from moisture or insects, the cabinet was raised on a fitted base and fitted with an upright frame and would have been carried at either end of a long carrying pole or shaped handles. The stress placed on the frame required a particularly strong construction, reinforced with inlaid hardware.
A slightly larger huanghuali traveling bookcase (58 cm. high) illustrated with the doors open to reveal the interior fitted with multiple drawers, is published by G. Ecke, Domestic Chinese Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 135, fig. 107. A huanghauli traveling scholar's bookcase fitted with a rare, undulating carrying handle, formerly in the Mingjishantang Collection, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 2912.
To facilitate transport and to protect the traveling case from moisture or insects, the cabinet was raised on a fitted base and fitted with an upright frame and would have been carried at either end of a long carrying pole or shaped handles. The stress placed on the frame required a particularly strong construction, reinforced with inlaid hardware.
A slightly larger huanghuali traveling bookcase (58 cm. high) illustrated with the doors open to reveal the interior fitted with multiple drawers, is published by G. Ecke, Domestic Chinese Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 135, fig. 107. A huanghauli traveling scholar's bookcase fitted with a rare, undulating carrying handle, formerly in the Mingjishantang Collection, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 2912.