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Lot Essay
Half-round tables are recorded in the Ming carpenter's manuals, Lu Ban jing, suggesting they were once more common than the few surviving examples would seem to indicate. A demi-lune table and two outline drawings are illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 118, B125-B127.
Often made in pairs, demi-lune tables were usually designed to be pushed together to form a single round table. However, the finished feet, terminating in elegant ball feet carved with floral design, the rounded cabriole legs, and the elegant beading at the back indicate the present demi-lune table was designed as a singular example and not as one of a pair. These tables were meant to be displayed on their own as seen in the woodblock print (Fig. 1). The table is further distinguished by the mottled green-marble inset top. Tables with stone tops are easy to clean and resistant to heat and moisture. A practical surface, the stone could more easily withstand the wear and tear of hot censers, staining from wine or tea, and the outdoor elements than its wood counterparts. A green stone-inset huanghuali recessed-leg wine table, of rectangular form and with unusual ruyi form spandrels was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2024, lot 1119.
Most published examples, such as a demi-lune table in the collection of Messrs. Robert and William Drummond, illustrated by G. Ecke, Domestic Chinese Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 72, fig. 55, are shown with shaped aprons. See, also, another huanghuali demi-lune example illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Living With Ming – The Lu Ming Shi Collection, Phillipe de Backer, 2000, p. 112, pl. 22. A very rare huanghuali demi-lune table with supporting cross stretchers in the Minneapolis Institute of Art is illustrated by M. Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 248-51. See, also, a three-legged huanghuali demi-lune table with elegantly carved spandrels sold at A Connoisseur’s Studio – the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection of Classical Chinese Furniture; Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2023, lot 2709.
Often made in pairs, demi-lune tables were usually designed to be pushed together to form a single round table. However, the finished feet, terminating in elegant ball feet carved with floral design, the rounded cabriole legs, and the elegant beading at the back indicate the present demi-lune table was designed as a singular example and not as one of a pair. These tables were meant to be displayed on their own as seen in the woodblock print (Fig. 1). The table is further distinguished by the mottled green-marble inset top. Tables with stone tops are easy to clean and resistant to heat and moisture. A practical surface, the stone could more easily withstand the wear and tear of hot censers, staining from wine or tea, and the outdoor elements than its wood counterparts. A green stone-inset huanghuali recessed-leg wine table, of rectangular form and with unusual ruyi form spandrels was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2024, lot 1119.
Most published examples, such as a demi-lune table in the collection of Messrs. Robert and William Drummond, illustrated by G. Ecke, Domestic Chinese Furniture, Rutland and Tokyo, 1962, p. 72, fig. 55, are shown with shaped aprons. See, also, another huanghuali demi-lune example illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce, Living With Ming – The Lu Ming Shi Collection, Phillipe de Backer, 2000, p. 112, pl. 22. A very rare huanghuali demi-lune table with supporting cross stretchers in the Minneapolis Institute of Art is illustrated by M. Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 248-51. See, also, a three-legged huanghuali demi-lune table with elegantly carved spandrels sold at A Connoisseur’s Studio – the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection of Classical Chinese Furniture; Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2023, lot 2709.