17TH CENTURY

The form of the present table, with its simple, elegant lines, is one of the most successful, and popular forms found in Chinese furniture construction, dating the Ming and the Qing dynasties. A huanghuali corner-leg table of related proportions, carved on the aprons with dragon scroll, is in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 112, no. 95. Another table of this form, dated to the 16th century, is illustrated by R. H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1971, pl. 66.