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拍品专文
The present small table is of exceptional quality and was probably made to support an incense burner. Once placed upon a larger table, the incense table would measure the same height as a standard incense stand, such as the circular ‘de Santos’ tripod incense stand from the present sale.
In the form of a miniature kang table, the design of the table flows from the deeply scrolled apron to the exaggerated S-curved cabriole legs with an upturned leaf enclosing a ball and further carved with a curled leaf above. Elements of this small ‘incense table’ can be found on both kang tables and incense stands or true altar tables. A kang table in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol. I, Beijing, p. 177, no. 150, has the same flowing outline of the apron with its raised beaded edge and incurving C-scroll where the apron joins the leg. The Palace Museum example is unusual for the square joint at the legs, instead of the more commonly seen mitred joints. A folding kang table in the Liang Yi Collection with square lotus-shaped pads carved with ruyi, has the same leaf-embracing ball motif of the present table. The present table is probably most similar to a kang table, formerly in the Charlotte Horstmann Collection and now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, illustrated by Robert Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1971, p. no. 45, however, the carving is more vigorous and assured, especially when considering its smaller scale.
In the form of a miniature kang table, the design of the table flows from the deeply scrolled apron to the exaggerated S-curved cabriole legs with an upturned leaf enclosing a ball and further carved with a curled leaf above. Elements of this small ‘incense table’ can be found on both kang tables and incense stands or true altar tables. A kang table in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol. I, Beijing, p. 177, no. 150, has the same flowing outline of the apron with its raised beaded edge and incurving C-scroll where the apron joins the leg. The Palace Museum example is unusual for the square joint at the legs, instead of the more commonly seen mitred joints. A folding kang table in the Liang Yi Collection with square lotus-shaped pads carved with ruyi, has the same leaf-embracing ball motif of the present table. The present table is probably most similar to a kang table, formerly in the Charlotte Horstmann Collection and now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, illustrated by Robert Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1971, p. no. 45, however, the carving is more vigorous and assured, especially when considering its smaller scale.