A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER SIDE TABLE

18TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER SIDE TABLE
18th Century
The top deeply and crisply carved with a panoramic landscape scene with scholars engaged in a variety of pursuits including playing ge, discussing paintings, conversing in pairs and groups, and playing the qin, all within pavilions, arcades and garden terraces, the whole scene framed by a continuous border of chrysanthemums, lotus, peony, prunus and narcissus, the sides similarly carved with a floral frieze continuing into the legs, the shaped apron with phoenix amidst similar flowers
33½in. (85.1cm.) high, 44¾in. (113.7cm.) wide, 17¾in. (45cm.) deep

Lot Essay

A fine chair with an equal profusion of floral and figurative carving, dated Qing, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Lacquerware), Taipei, 1987, p. 172, fig. 169

For the Ming inspiration of such allover carving of red lacquer furniture, see the Imperial red lacquer table decorated with dragons and phoenix, with floral borders and a Xuande mark from the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated by Derek Clifford in Chinese Carved Lacquer, London, 1992, p. 72, pl. 44