The single board floating panel top set into a mitre, mortise-and-tenon frame with "ice-plate" edge supported underneath by five dove-tail transverse stretchers over a one-piece recessed waist and plain apron mitered, mortise and tenoned and half lapped into square cut legs with hoof feet, the legs double-lock tenoned into the top frame and joined together by hump-back stretchers. 

Provenance: Grace Wu Bruce, purchased 27th February 1996.

Notes: For comparable examples in public collections, see Craig Clunas, Chinese Furniture, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988, no 48; Chen Zengbi. Zhongyang Gongyi Meishu Xueyuan Yuancang: Zhenpin Tulu dier ji, Mingshi Jiaju. Central Academy of Arts and Crafts: Illustrations of collections, volume 2, Ming Furniture, Beijing 1994, no. 35.

For recently sold examples of this classic design, see a slightly smaller example sold Christie's, New York, the Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Part II, lot 169, 18 March 2015; see also Beijing Guardian, lot 3209, 17 November 2013.

Bonhams. THE JOHN AND CELESTE FLEMING COLLECTION OF CHINESE FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART, 2016-09-12 10:00 EDT - NEW YORK