19TH CENTURY

Display shelves are found in various materials and sizes. The open shelving in a varying heights and configurations allowed for the display of vases and decorative works in contrasting sizes, colors and shapes. This style of display created sumptuous and lavish interior spaces, such as the pair of curio cabinets filled with bronzes and porcelains in the eastern wing of the Chuxiu Palace, illustrated by Hu Desheng in The Palace Museum Collection: A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, vol. 2, Beijing, c. 2007, p. 696, fig. 797. A related gilt-decorated zitan display shelf, dated to the Yongzheng-Qianlong period, in the Qing collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 54 - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 254, no. 216 and p. 270, no. 229. Similar to the present display shelf, these display shelves have an asymmetrical arrangement of shelves and drawers of varying heights and shapes, each opening fitted with an openwork gallery. Wang Shixiang illustrates in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. 54, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 144, D9, a three-shelf open stand with two drawers raised on two removeable pedestals suggesting that these display shelves were adapted to the interior setting.