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Lot Essay
A bookcase of similar proportions and design, but with short railings around the sides and backs of the shelves, sold in these rooms, 16 September 1999, lot 48.
Bookcases and open-shelf stands are referred to as shujia or shuge, the basic forms of which are discussed by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 82, D1-3. Compare a bookcase similar in design to the present lot, but with three drawers under the second shelf, in the collection of David Utterberg, San Francisco, and illustrated by S. Handler, "Outstanding Pieces in Private Rooms: Chinese Classical Furniture in New American Collections," Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations, 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 168, fig. 5. See, also, a similar bookshelf, but with a railing forming window-like openings around the top shelf, illustrated by G. W. Bruce, Dreams of the Chu Tan Chamber and the Romance with Huanghuali Wood: The Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, p. 108-9, no. 41.
Bookcases and open-shelf stands are referred to as shujia or shuge, the basic forms of which are discussed by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 82, D1-3. Compare a bookcase similar in design to the present lot, but with three drawers under the second shelf, in the collection of David Utterberg, San Francisco, and illustrated by S. Handler, "Outstanding Pieces in Private Rooms: Chinese Classical Furniture in New American Collections," Chinese Furniture: Selected Articles from Orientations, 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 168, fig. 5. See, also, a similar bookshelf, but with a railing forming window-like openings around the top shelf, illustrated by G. W. Bruce, Dreams of the Chu Tan Chamber and the Romance with Huanghuali Wood: The Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, p. 108-9, no. 41.