A PAIR OF HUANGHUALI BOOKSHELVES

Bookcases and open shelf stands are referred to as shujia or shuge, the basic forms of which are discussed by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 82, D1-3. Open shelf stands are constructed from four vertical uprights joined by shelves and drawers. Carved openwork gallery rails or the use of woods of contrasting color or grain add decorative flare to this simple form, such as a huanghuali, wumu and tielimu four-shelf bookcase in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, published in R. Jacobson and N. Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, p. 143. See, also, another example in huanghuali and wumu, with wumu openwork panels formerly in the collection of the Museum of Classical Chinese furniture and illustrated by Wang Shixiang and C. Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, pp. 122-3, no. 57.