Lot 33. A huanghuali three-spandrel square table (fangzhuo), 17th-18th century. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

the paneled top set within a mitered, mortise and tenon frame, the molded frame with a central groove tapering to a crisply beaded edge, the straight beaded apron continuing to a scrolling foliate spandrel flanking each leg with a third similarly carved spandrel joining the outside of each leg to the projecting top corner, the legs of lobed square section joined by double-beaded humpback stretchers connected to the apron on each side by two ruyi-form struts. Height 33 in., 83.9 cm; Width 34 3/4  in., 88.3 cm; Depth 34 1/2  in., 87.6 cm

Notes: Examples similar to this rare form are found represented in two illustrious collections; one in the Shanghai museum is illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1990, pl. B50 and the other is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), vol. 53, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 77. A pair of the same form but inset with decorative stone tops is illustrated in Splendor of Style: Classical Furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1999, pp. 128-129 where it is noted that the form with its fine detailed carving and legs of crisp 'melon-shaped' profile exemplify the best of Suzhou craftsmanship.

Sotheby's. The Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Classical Furniture, New York, 15 mars 2016, 10:00 AM