MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD (1572-1620)

The form of the present table is referred to as a jiuzhou by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. I, pp. 54-56, where he illustrates a closely related example in black lacquer in vol. II, p. 78, no. B36. While the author notes that the exact origin of the name jiuzhuo is unknown, it was associated with tables of this general form which appear in Ming dynasty paintings and are used to serve wine and food. Wang continues to say that these wine tables typically have raised, beaded edges on the top frame, presumably to prevent run-off from spilled wine.

The present wine table is an exceptionally rare example of early imperial lacquer furniture, which rarely survives in such well-preserved condition. A nearly identical mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer table decorated with carved dragons, and bearing a six-character Wanli mark in gilt and of the period, 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. 128, no. 108. (Fig.1) Another mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer table, also bearing a Wanli six-character mark and of the period, and decorated in gilt with dragons chasing flaming pearls was sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1325.