A VERY RARE WAISTLESS HUANGHUALI DAYBED

In these ten pieces of huanghuali, this daybed deftly combines the brilliant technical genius of Chinese joinery with a sleek design. Through the careful engineering of these simple members and unseen joints, the carpenter is able to avoid using stretchers, braces and/or spandrels to buttress and support the legs and frame and creates a seamless, architectural design. Focus is instead on the balanced form, the nuanced tapering of the legs terminating in gently upturned feet or the delicate everted ends. The overall effect is timeless and defines the restrained yet sophisticated aesthetic of Ming furniture.

Often seen on tables, such as trestle-leg or corner-leg tables, everted ends rarely appear on daybeds, and with very few extant or published examples in huanghuali. A very rare huanghuali daybed with tall waist, outward-turned feet, and everted ends is illustrated in G. Wu, The Best of the Best: The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, Hong Kong, 2017, pp. 366-369. A flush-corner waistless huanghuali daybed without everted ends was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2022, lot 2807.