.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The combination of huanghuali and huamu burl was popular in classical Chinese furniture construction, forming a pleasing aesthetic, with the lighter huanghuali providing an attractive contrast to the darker, swirled grain of the burl. An especially elegant example of a huamu burl-inset huanghuali round-corner cabinet, formerly in the Arch. Ignazio Vok Collection, illustrated by Nicholas Grindley et al., Pure Form: Classical Chinese Furniture: Vok Collection, Padua, 2004, pl. 1, was sold at Christie’s New York, 17-18 September 2015, lot 2032.
The present round-corner cabinet is a superb example of its type in both proportion and form. It is made even rarer by the huamu burl-inset panels bisecting the floating huanghuali panels. A rare pair of huanghuali, huamu, nanmu, and boxwood cabinets, illustrated by Marcus Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 166-67, exhibits similar door composition—huanghuali door frames enclose two panels of attractively grained huamu set on either side of a narrow huanghuali panel carved with a stylized floral motif.
Cabinets constructed with paneled doors are a design feature more commonly found on carved lacquer and painted lacquer prototypes. A gilt-decorated black lacquer cabinet with paneled doors, decorated with pairs of writhing dragons on the larger panels and a dragon chasing a flaming pearl on the narrow panel, dated to the Wanli Period, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 53 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 208-9, pl. 177. Another similarly constructed red lacquer cabinet, carved with dragons chasing flaming pearls on a yellow ground, currently in the Oesterreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, is illustrated in Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1979, p. 102-103, pls. 139-141.
The present round-corner cabinet is a superb example of its type in both proportion and form. It is made even rarer by the huamu burl-inset panels bisecting the floating huanghuali panels. A rare pair of huanghuali, huamu, nanmu, and boxwood cabinets, illustrated by Marcus Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture: a very personal point of view, London, 2011, pp. 166-67, exhibits similar door composition—huanghuali door frames enclose two panels of attractively grained huamu set on either side of a narrow huanghuali panel carved with a stylized floral motif.
Cabinets constructed with paneled doors are a design feature more commonly found on carved lacquer and painted lacquer prototypes. A gilt-decorated black lacquer cabinet with paneled doors, decorated with pairs of writhing dragons on the larger panels and a dragon chasing a flaming pearl on the narrow panel, dated to the Wanli Period, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 53 – Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1), Hong Kong, 2002, p. 208-9, pl. 177. Another similarly constructed red lacquer cabinet, carved with dragons chasing flaming pearls on a yellow ground, currently in the Oesterreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, is illustrated in Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, New York, 1979, p. 102-103, pls. 139-141.