18TH-19TH CENTURY

Modest-sized tables with drawers, such as the present coffer, combined broad work surfaces with easy storage solutions. This elegant form is both compact and versatile, and could serve many purposes within a domestic interior. A related two-drawer huanghuali coffer, set with everted ends and with a shaped, beaded apron, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and illustrated by C. Clunas, Chinese Furniture, London, 1998, p. 84, no. 67. See, also, the two-drawer huanghuali coffer of similar proportions sold at Christie's New York, The Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Part II: Chinese Furniture, Scholar's Objects and Chinese Paintings, 18 March 2015, lot 167. Another related two-drawer huanghuali coffer, of related proportions, was sold at Christie's New York, 13 September 2019, lot 887.