Lot 3085. A huanghuali Six-Immortals table, late Ming dynasty; 86 by 83 by 82.5 cm, 33 7/8  by 32 5/8  by 32 1/2  in. Estimate 650,000 — 850,000 HKD (83,135 - 108,715 USD). © Sotheby's 2018

the top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon frame and flush, tongue-and-grooved, round-cornered-board floating-panel construction supported by dovetailed transverse stretchers, the edge of the frame grooved and moulding downward and inward to end in a narrow flat band, all above a recessed waist and beaded-edged straight apron, mitred, mortised and tenoned into and half-lapped onto the legs, the legs double-lock tennoned to the mitred frame and terminating in well-drawn hoof feet, the legs mortised and tennoned with humpback-shaped stretchers.

Provenance: Grace Wu Bruce. 

Note: Square tables of this form in varying sizes, are known as eight, six or four immortals table. In the Ming-dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei [The plum in a golden vase], such immortal tables are depicted as square dining tables that could sit six, four or two people. As these tables were used frequently, they are generally robustly constructed. The high humpback stretchers on the present table not only provide extra structural support to the table, but also created ample leg room for the sitters. 

A closely related table, of near identical construction but slightly larger in size, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot 4079. Compare also another example from the collection of Wang Shixiang, decorated with corner spandrels, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1989, no. B49. Another square table adorned with curved braces at the corners, is illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 11.

Sotheby's. Curiosity IV. Hong Kong, 02 Apr 2018, 10:30 AM