A huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet,yuanjiaogui, 17th century

13 février 2018

A huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet,yuanjiaogui, 17th century

Lot 977. A huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet, yuanjiaogui, 17th century; 74 7/8 in. (190.2 cm.) high, 36 ¼ in. (92.1 cm.) wide, 19 5/8 in. (49.8 cm.) deep. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 468,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The beautifully-proportioned cabinet is constructed with a rounded rectangular double-molded and beaded top, supported on elegantly splayed legs of double-molded and beaded square section. The large panels of the doors are set within double-molded and beaded frames and open to reveal the shelved interior fitted with drawers, all above plain aprons and spandrels on all four sides.

Provenance: Schoeni Fine Oriental Art, Hong Kong, 1990s.

Note: The round-corner tapered cabinet, or yuanjiaogui, is amongst the most beautiful and elegant designs in all of classical Chinese furniture. The very subtle splay in its design lends a sense of stability and balance to the form while retaining a very graceful and pleasing profile. The form was widely used in cabinet making throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties.

As elucidated by C. Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, 1995, Hong Kong, p. 130, yuanjiaogui are of two types: those with circular members and those with square members, which are considerably rarer. The present cabinet falls into the latter, more rare type, but is distinguished by the elegant and clever use of a deep ‘thumb-mold’ surrounded by raised beading at nearly every edge of the cabinet, including at the edges of the doors themselves. Such playful carving softens the hard edges of the square members while maintaining the overall appearance of stability and sturdiness; compare a similarly-proportioned yuanjiaogui from the Lu Ming Shi Collection, illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce in Ming Furniture in the Forbidden City, Beijing, 2006, p. 199, which uses a slightly simpler bead-work to similar effect.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York

Posté par Alain Truong à 16:23 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: 17th century, huanghuali, Yuanjiaogui, round-corner tapered cabinet