17TH/18TH CENTURY

The present pair of cabinets was once in the collection of Commissioner-General and Mme. Henri Hoppenot, a French diplomat who served in many illustrious posts, including that of French president of the United Nations Security Council, Plenipotentiary Officer at Montevideo, and Ambassador of France in Bern, where he was an honorary Member of the Museum of Fine Arts. He was also the last person to hold the position of Commissioner-General in Indochina from 1955-56.

The form of the present cabinets, with their simple lines and versitile form and size, are one of the most popular type of cabinet found in Chinese furniture construction. Several examples of this type, and its square-corner counterpart are known. Compare the pair of huanghuali tapered cabinets, although lacking centre stiles, illustrated by Robert H. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, pp. 192-93, no. 75, where they are dated to the early 17th century. Another larger (120 cm.) huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, 1999, pp. 150-51, no. 52.