17TH-18TH CENTURY

Though oversized hardwood chests are frequently seen in Ming-dynasty woodblock prints, (Fig. 1) there are relatively few extant huanghuali examples from this period. The present chest, dating to the 17^th-18^th century, would have been found in the residential quarters of an upper class family. A chest of this size would have held clothes and may have had an accompanying stand to protect the base from moisture, similar to a huanghuali clothes chest illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 190-1, no. 69.

A huanghuali clothes chest of slightly larger size, dated to the 17th century, was sold in Fine Chinese Furniture from Private American Collections; Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2016. A pair of smaller huanghuali clothes chests, with quatrefoil lockplate and dated 17th-18th century, was sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2014, lot 2250.