LATE MING DYNASTY-EARLY QING DYNASTY

Details

A HUANGHUALI SHRINE
LATE MING DYNASTY-EARLY QING DYNASTY
This shrine is shaped like a gatehouse. Three single boards are inserted into the base, and one on top creating the shrine cavity. The base stretchers are carved with curvilinear silhouettes and two uprights rise from the corners in front with low railings, encircling an anteroom-like space in front of the shrine cavity, the central part left open. Openwork carved panels of chi-dragons are inset into the railings. On top of the anteroom are eaves, guayan, on all three sides, inset with openwork panels of floral, shou character and antique coin pattern. The shrine cavity has long aprons on the sides while the one on top is fitted with short columns carved with lotus buds and leaves.
9 5⁄8 in. (24.4 cm.) wide, 9 5⁄16 in. (23.6 cm.) deep, 17 3⁄8 in. (44 cm.) high

Provenance

The MQJ Collection, Hong Kong

Literature

Grace Wu Bruce, Two Decades of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2010, p. 283
Grace Wu, The Best of the Best- The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture- vol. 2, Beijing, 2017, pp. 502-503
Grace Wu, Three Decades of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2024, p. 288

Exhibited

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Best of the Best- The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, 29 September-2 October 2017
Christie’s Hong Kong, A Special Exhibition of the MQJ Collection, 11-15 October 2024

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Traditional households often have shrines to house deities for worship. Most surviving examples are made of zitan wood, hongmu or lacquered softwood with huanghuali pieces being quite rare.

The Guanyin figure is not included in this lot (Fig. 1).

Please note these lots contain a type of Dalbergia wood that is subject to CITES export/import restrictions. However, as each lot (or each individual item in the lot) the weight of this type of Dalbergia does not exceed 10 kg, starting from 1 May 2021, CITES license is no longer required for importing the lot (or the individual item in the lot) into Hong Kong. Before you decide to bid, please check whether your destination country permits import without CITES license. If CITES license is required, we will make the lot available for your collection in Hong Kong. We will not cancel your purchase due to any CITES restrictions impacting the import of the lot to the destination country.

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