Lot Essay
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
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