A RARE HUANGHUALI KANG TABLE WITH FOLDING LEGS, KANGZHUO

LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE HUANGHUALI KANG TABLE WITH FOLDING LEGS, KANGZHUO
Late 16th/Early 17th Century
The rectangular paneled top with 'ice-plate' edge supported on cabriole legs, each terminating in a slender leaf cradling a ball, resting on trapezoidal pads carved with ruyi cloudheads, the curvilinear apron well carved in low relief with winged dragons confronting a lotus blossom amid scrolling tendrils, the folding legs originally resting in spaces on the inside of the long aprons
9in. (22.8cm.) high, 29.7/8in. (75.9cm.) wide, 20in. (51.5cm.) deep

Provenance

The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection
Sold in these rooms, September 19, 1996, lot 103

Literature

Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 86, no. 40

Lot Essay

Compare the collapsible kang table with a similar design, including the winged dragons, also lacking its folding mechanism, sold at Sotheby's, New York, October 10, 1987, lot 414. Another table, with its folding mechanism intact, is illustrated by Robert Ellsworth, Nicholas Grindley and Anita Christy in Chinese Furniture, One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, no. 13, p. 112

Refer, also, to the huanghuali folding kang table from the Kai-Yin Lo Collection, Hong Kong, illustrated by Wang Shixiang in "Additional Examples of Classical Chinese Furniture", Orientations, January, 1992, pp. 40-50, no. 5, and illustrated again by Wang in his article, "Mingshi jiaju shili zengbu" ("Additional Examples of Ming-Style Furniture"), Gugong bowuyuan yuankan, 1 (Palace Museum Journal), Beijing, no. 59, p. 45

For a pair of comparable winged dragons on the aprons of a pair of wardrobes in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see Craig Clunas, Chinese Furniture, London, 1988, p. 94, no. 81