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Lot Essay
Semi-circular tables are recorded in the Ming carpenter’s manuals, Lu Ban Jing, suggesting they were once more popular than the few surviving examples would seem to indicate.
A demi-lune table and two outline drawings are illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 118, B125-B127. Compare to a huanghuali demi-lune table of similar form and proportion but with lobed brackets formerly in the Mr. and Mrs Robert P. Piccus Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 33.
There are two types of semi-circular table, the first were made in pairs with the rear legs half the width of the front leg, so when joined together all legs were the same width; and thesecond type here produced as a single table with the rear legs the same width as the front leg. These tables were meant to be displayed on their own as seen in the woodblock print. The current lot belongs to the second type.
A demi-lune table and two outline drawings are illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 118, B125-B127. Compare to a huanghuali demi-lune table of similar form and proportion but with lobed brackets formerly in the Mr. and Mrs Robert P. Piccus Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 33.
There are two types of semi-circular table, the first were made in pairs with the rear legs half the width of the front leg, so when joined together all legs were the same width; and thesecond type here produced as a single table with the rear legs the same width as the front leg. These tables were meant to be displayed on their own as seen in the woodblock print. The current lot belongs to the second type.