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Lot Essay
The present lot demonstrates the characteristics style of furniture making from the Suzhou region in the Jiangsu province. With elegant form and delicate lines, the recessed high waist is tongue-and-grooved to the underside of the frame top supported by the exposed square section on the upper part of the leg, adding a vertical element to the horizontal structure to create harmony. The recessed high waist design in Chinese furniture originated from the Buddhist pedestal structure known as xumizuo which could be traced back to the Tang dynasty. Refer to Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture for further discussions. Also, it is rare to find a large panel of dynamically grained burlwood in such a good condition as the present lot.
Compare with a smaller table inlaid with nanmu, in the former Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 1996, lot 20. Also see another very similar table but slightly smaller in size with transverse braces, illustrated in The Best of the Best: The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2017, p.112.
Compare with a smaller table inlaid with nanmu, in the former Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 1996, lot 20. Also see another very similar table but slightly smaller in size with transverse braces, illustrated in The Best of the Best: The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2017, p.112.