Lot 806. A large huanghuali travelling box, Ming dynasty, 17th century; 54 by 30.5 by h. 41 cm. Lot Sold 1,440,000 HKD (Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD). © Sotheby's

the rectangular carry box constructed with an elegant humpbacked handle, with spandrels carved in openwork and adorned with two addorsed archaistic kui dragons, the interior with two foldable silver-inlaid chess boards: a double-sided weiqi and xiangqi board, and a backgammon board, along with a small stationery box and eight additional drawers, the front door and drawers fastened with bronze plates and pulls.

Provenance: The Canton Collection, Hong Kong, and thence by family descent.

Note: Made of prized huanghuali wood, the present lot is a portable delight. Contained within a well constructed box, fastened with a bronze latch, are two silver-inlaid wooden game boards and charming stationery box; likely once the treasured belongings of an official on tour or a scholar on his way to sit imperial exams. Worthy distractions from the trials of statecraft and challenging tests of mental fortitude, board games in general – and weiqi in particular – have long been admired as symbols of intelligence and counted alongside playing the qin zither, calligraphy, and painting as one of the Four Scholarly Pursuits. Compare a scene from a Ming edition of the Lienü zhuan (‘Biographies of Exemplary Women’), illustrated by famed artist Qiu Ying (1494-1552), in which a woman and an official play weiqi together beside a similar game box of a somewhat simpler form (fig. 1).

fig. 1. Qiu Ying, Lienü Zhuan (‘Biographies of Exemplary Women’), Vol. 16.5

Combining a smoothly carved handle in the shape of two addorsed kui dragons – more commonly seen on tiered boxes from the period – with the grand construction of more conventional chest designs, the present lot is a marvel of Ming carpentry. Compare a similarly fine huanghuali tiered box sold in our New York rooms, 24th March 2018, lot 1853; and a chest with a similar opening mechanism, of simple rectangular form without a wooden handle, sold in these rooms, 5th October 2016, lot 3008.

Compare also three other huanghuali game boards with similar folding mechanisms: two, also double sided with weiqi and xiangqi boards, illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, The Best of The Best: The MQJ Collection of Ming Furniture, vol. 2, Beijing, 2017, p. 452 and Chu-Pak Lau, Classical Chinese Huanghuali Furniture from the Haven Collection, Hong Kong, 2016, cat. no. 92; the other, with only one side inlaid with a xiangqi board, from the Dayton Collection, illustrated in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, no. 82.

Sotheby's. Power & Culture – Heirlooms from the Poon Family Collection, Hong Kong, 16 October 2024