17TH/18TH CENTURY

The present cabinet, with its simple lines, represents one of the most popular and successful designs in Chinese furniture construction, and was widely used in cabinet making throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. Several examples of this type, and its square-corner counterpart are known. Compare the pair of huanghuali tapered cabinets, although lacking centre stiles, illustrated by Robert H. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, pp. 192-93, no. 75, where they are dated to the early 17th century.A huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet of similar size (120 cm.) in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, 1999, pp. 150-51, no. 52, where it is dated to the 17th century. See, also, the example from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, sold by Christie's, New York, 18 March 2009, lot 383, where it was dated to the 18th century.