CHINA, MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

Compare a pair of adjustable lampstands dated to late seventeenth/early eighteenth century, sold at Christie's, New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September, 1996, lot 49, and now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated in R.D. Jacobsen, Classical Chinese Furniture In the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999, pp. 168-169. no. 59.

For a discussion of adjustable lampstands, their construction and use, see Sarah Handler, "Carriers of Light: The Chinese Lampstand and Lantern," Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Summer 1994, pp. 19-34, and her corresponding chapter in Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, ch. 18, pp. 303-318.