A VERY RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INSET HUANGHUALI ROUND-CORNER CABINET

The present cabinet appears to be the mate to a rare huanghuali round-corner cabinet with paneled doors and pierced panels sold at Christie’s New York, 23 September 2022, lot 794. (Fig. 1) The construction of each door, comprising two plain boards of attractive grain and interspersed with pierced narrow panels carved with dragons, appear to be unique to these two cabinets. Furthermore, close study of the plain panels reveals the same distinctive grain figurations, indicating that all eight panels were cut from the same piece of timber. The careful matching of the doors suggest that the cabinet-maker intentionally designed the pair of cabinets to not only feature the natural markings of the wood but to be complimentary.

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 (1573-1619), is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 53 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1), Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 208-9, pl. 177. It is rare to find cabinets with this unusual panel door construction in huanghuali. The door construction and choice of striding dragons in the narrow panels suggests the cabinetmaker drew inspiration from these lacquer prototypes.

A related round-corner huanghuali cabinet with openwork narrow panels set against a huamu-burl panel was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1667.