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Lot Essay
This tall cabinet is notable for its sober and yet sophisticated elegance. The cabinet was simple save for the beaded edges of the aprons and the cylindrical bars on the sides of the open shelf. The latter echo the latticework often found on Ming and Qing dynasty doors and windows, and served to create interesting shadows when light filtered through. The doors fitted flush and opening to reveal the shelved interior with two drawers.
Known as lianggegui among modern Beijing cabinet-makers, cabinets with a high open shelf first appeared around the mid-to late Ming dynasty. Generally reserved for the scholar's studio, where the top shelf was used to display curious and rare antiquities, cabinets of this type are mentioned by Wen Zhenheng, the 17th century scholar and arbiter of refinement, in his Zhang wu zhi (Treaties on Superfluous Things).
Display cabinets with vertical bars on the sides of the open shelf are unusual. For related examples see a huanghuali display cabinet sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 80. Another example without bars on the sides, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 216, no. 183.
This item is made of a type of Dalbergia wood which is subject to CITES export/import restrictions since 2 January 2017. This item can only be shipped to addresses within Hong Kong or collected from our Hong Kong saleroom and office unless a CITES re-export permit is granted. Please contact the department for further information.
Known as lianggegui among modern Beijing cabinet-makers, cabinets with a high open shelf first appeared around the mid-to late Ming dynasty. Generally reserved for the scholar's studio, where the top shelf was used to display curious and rare antiquities, cabinets of this type are mentioned by Wen Zhenheng, the 17th century scholar and arbiter of refinement, in his Zhang wu zhi (Treaties on Superfluous Things).
Display cabinets with vertical bars on the sides of the open shelf are unusual. For related examples see a huanghuali display cabinet sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 80. Another example without bars on the sides, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 216, no. 183.
This item is made of a type of Dalbergia wood which is subject to CITES export/import restrictions since 2 January 2017. This item can only be shipped to addresses within Hong Kong or collected from our Hong Kong saleroom and office unless a CITES re-export permit is granted. Please contact the department for further information.