Lot 3019. A huanghuali banzhuo side table, Late Ming–Early Qing dynasty. Estimate 380,000 — 550,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,000,000 HKD. Photo: Sothebys.

the top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon frame and flush, tongue-and-grooved, single-board floating-panel construction supported by three dovetailed transverse stretchers underneath, two with exposed tenons, the short rails of the frame top with further exposed tenons, the edge of the frame moulding downward and inward and ending in a banded edge, all resting on a recessed waist and beaded-edged straight apron, made of one piece of wood on two sides, mitred, mortised and tennoned into and half-lapped onto the legs, the legs double-lock tennoned to the mitred frame and terminating in well drawn hoof feet, hump-back shaped stretchers mortised and tennoned into the legs below the apron; 86.8 by 97.8 by 48.9 cm, 34 1/8  by 38 1/2  by 19 1/4  in.

Notes: This Ming Design, seen already in wall murals of the Jin and Yuan dynasties (1115-1368) is hailed by furniture historians as an all time classic.

Banzhuo, meaning half table, is called hexian in the south, a term that refers to them becoming an immortal’s table, that is a square table, when combined. In antiquity, they were placed adjacent to a square table to increase the number of people that can be seated round.

This finely crafted piece of choice timer, made during the golden period of Chinese furniture manufacture, is an all time classic.

For a very similar example in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, see Craig Clunas, Chinese Furniture, Victoria and Albert Museum Far Eastern Series, London, 1988, p. 48. Another example is in the collection of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, Beijing, published in 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), Top-Notch Publication Co., Hong Kong, 1994, p. 35.

Sotheby's, Ming Furniture – Portable Treasures, Hong Kong, 05 Oct 2016