CHINA, 17TH-18TH CENTURY

At first glance, it is the impressive scale of the present table that strikes the viewer; however, upon closer examination, it is the delicate and intricately worked details that lend the table a refined grace and sophistication sometimes lacking in oversized furniture. The floating single-panel is framed by delicate everted ends, above finely carved ruyi-form spandrels enclosing confronting chilong. Openwork panels, finely carved with an animated chilong, join the legs completing this bold and sophisticated design. A smaller huanghuali trestle-leg table with similarly carved spandrels is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum: Table, vol. 11, Beijing, 2015, pp. 534-35.

This form is known as a qiaotou'an, or 'everted-end recessed-leg table,' although the late Ming style-maker Wen Zhenheng termed it bizhuo, or 'wall table,' as it was commonly used against a wall to display works of art or to hold offerings. Tables of the present type tend to feature long, single-plank tops and thick members. Such tables also feature aprons with integral spandrels which are joined by dovetail-housing to the trestle legs, providing added structural support.