A huanghuali low table (kangzhuo), late Ming dynasty, 17th century. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

two well figured panels joined and inset into a mitered frame with molded edge, above a pierced recessed waist enclosing pairs of highly stylized archaistic chilong above a well-shaped arched and cusped, beaded apron caved with further pairs of confronting chilong amid scrolling leaves, with lion masks at each corner above cabriole legs terminating in padded ball and claw feet, the underside with three transverse braces. Height 11 1/2  in., 29 cm; Width 37 1/8  in., 94 cm; Depth 25 1/2  in., 65 cm. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD 

Provenance: Ho Cheung, Hong Kong.

Note: An equally ornately carved kang table is illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. 1., Hong Kong, 1990, fig. B.13. For another closely related highly decorated low table see Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics Series, Beijing1999, no. 16. Additional a similar example but of zitan wood was a part of the Museum of Clasisical Chinese Furniture Collection and is illustrated in Wan Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, no. 39 where the authors note that in the Ming dynasty carpenter's manual  Lu Ban jing artisans are recommended to carve shoulders with 'four-fanged swallowing-heads" (sichi tuntou). None of the aforementioned have an open scrollwork waist, a rare feature and distinguishing feature, of the present table. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York | 17 Sep 2013 - http://www.sothebys.com