A HUANGHUALI DEMI-LUNETTE TABLE, YUEYAZHUO

17TH CENTURY

細節

A HUANGHUALI DEMI-LUNETTE TABLE, YUEYAZHUO
17th Century
The semi-circular panel top set within a frame with "ice-plate" edge above a narrow waist, supported on three slender, inward-curving cabriole legs flaring to hoof feet, each carved with cloud scrolls on the sides and an upturned flower bud in front, the rounded apron with a gently curving outline and joined to the legs by lobed brackets, the long, straight back of the table as well finished as the exposed half-moon front
34½in. (87.6cm.) high, 41 1/8in. (104.4cm.) wide, 20 3/8in. (51.8cm.) deep

拍品專文

Half-round tables are recorded in the Ming carpenter's manual, Lu Ban jing, suggesting they were once more common than the few surviving examples would seem to indicate. Compare the example from the Robert Tang Collection, included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition, In Pursuit of Antiquities, Hong Kong, 1995, Catalogue, p. 278, no. 250. Another demi-lunette table and two outline drawings are illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 118, nos. B125-B127

The brackets are reminiscent of the "giant's arm" braces found on square or rectangular tables, although in the present instance, they are both decorative and functional