18TH CENTURY

The present tielimu example, dated to the 18th century, is identical in form and construction to several tables of related form found in huanghuali. A huanghuali table formerly from the Gangolf Geis collection, sold at Christies, New York, 18 September 2003, lot 44 is the most similar in its proportion and design to the present tieli example. Both examples display similar powerful, thick leg and waist, but the Geis example is distinguished by ‘giant arm’s’ braces and more everted end flanges. See a huanghuali narrow table, constructed with a solid huanghuali plank and slender, tapered square-section legs sold at Christie's New York, Important Chinese Furniture Formerly the Collection of Classical Chinese Furniture, 19 September 1996, lot 22 (fig. 1). Another huanghuali example, illustrated in Curtis Evarts, Splendor of Style: Classical Furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 1999, p. 144, from the Take One Step Back Studio Collection, has the same weighty leg and strong foot but with a slightly lighter design as the present table. See, also, a huanghuali example with a higher foot and more tapered leg than the present example, in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by Robert Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Chicago, 1999, no. 39, has a distinct structural variant seen in the mitred joint at the top of the leg that extends at an angle to the top corner of the solid top, giving extra strength to the corner joint.