拍品專文
The design of the present example, where the canopy is supported on only the four corner posts, is rare. Other categories include: those with two additional posts rising from a narrower 'entrance' at the front making the better-known six-poster bed; four-poster beds with a large circular 'full moon' opening at the front; or the corridor beds with a separate antechamber on one side.
Wang Shixiang illustrates a drawing of a four-poster bed with an open front and pingzi-pattern side rail which forms the character ping (peace) in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 134, no. C15. See another example, with a railing of interlocked rings, illustrated by Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, pl. 36, no. 25.
Most canopy beds favor simple C-curved legs with hoof feet or gently curving cabriole legs with simple profiles to the carved or uncarved aprons. The legs of the present example are, again, relatively rare. They are long and the profile connecting them to the apron is unusually complex. A similar example from the Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, is illustrated in the Catalogue, pp. 130-131, fig. 51.2-51.3.
An example with the same begonia-shaped piercings in the canopy panels is illustrated by Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture, p. 141, fig. 32.
In his analysis of the novel, Jin Ping Mei, Curtis Evarts notes that four-post beds consistently have curtains draped around the outside of the bed. Those referred to in the book are described as mosquito nets dyed with the juice of hibiscus flowers, JCCFS, Autumn 1993, p. 30.
Compare this bed, with four posters and restrained design, to the larger six-poster 'wedding bed' (lot 54) ornately carved with symbols of longevity and fecundity. It has been suggested that the present lot was more likely to have been found in the men's apartments, with its ideal of "pleasant refinement and elegant simplicity without stylish adornment", cited by Wen Zhenhang in Zhang wu zhi (Treatise on Superfluous Things), compiled 1615-20. The wedding bed, often a dowry brought in with the bride, was more likely found in the ladies' quarters.
Wang Shixiang illustrates a drawing of a four-poster bed with an open front and pingzi-pattern side rail which forms the character ping (peace) in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 134, no. C15. See another example, with a railing of interlocked rings, illustrated by Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, pl. 36, no. 25.
Most canopy beds favor simple C-curved legs with hoof feet or gently curving cabriole legs with simple profiles to the carved or uncarved aprons. The legs of the present example are, again, relatively rare. They are long and the profile connecting them to the apron is unusually complex. A similar example from the Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, is illustrated in the Catalogue, pp. 130-131, fig. 51.2-51.3.
An example with the same begonia-shaped piercings in the canopy panels is illustrated by Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture, p. 141, fig. 32.
In his analysis of the novel, Jin Ping Mei, Curtis Evarts notes that four-post beds consistently have curtains draped around the outside of the bed. Those referred to in the book are described as mosquito nets dyed with the juice of hibiscus flowers, JCCFS, Autumn 1993, p. 30.
Compare this bed, with four posters and restrained design, to the larger six-poster 'wedding bed' (lot 54) ornately carved with symbols of longevity and fecundity. It has been suggested that the present lot was more likely to have been found in the men's apartments, with its ideal of "pleasant refinement and elegant simplicity without stylish adornment", cited by Wen Zhenhang in Zhang wu zhi (Treatise on Superfluous Things), compiled 1615-20. The wedding bed, often a dowry brought in with the bride, was more likely found in the ladies' quarters.