18TH/19TH CENTURY

With their elegant construction and simple, refined aesthetic, these types of round-corner tapered cabinets have their origins in furniture of the Ming dynasty. Compare the form of a pair of tapered huanghuali cabinets with center stiles, dated to the late 16th or early 17th century, one illustrated by S. Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001, p. 248, fig. 15.9. See the form of another related late 16th or early 17th century huanghuali cabinet with center stile in the Lu Ming Shi collection, illustrated in Ming: The Golden Age of Chinese Furniture, Musée National des Arts Asiatiques - Guimet, 2003, pp. 190-1, no. 62. A pair of 17th century huanghuali tapered square-leg round-corner cabinets was sold in these rooms, The Gangolf Geis Collection of Fine Chinese Furniture, 18 September 2003, lot 18.