Lot 103. A huanghuali folding kang table, Late Ming dynasty; 25.8 by 85 by 41.7 cm., 10 1/8  by 33 1/2  by 16 3/8  in. Estimate 1,300,000 — 2,500,000. Lot Sold 2,360,000 HKD (271,296 EUR). Courtesy Sotheby's.

the lip-edged top of standard mitre, mortise and tenon construction with a flush, tongue-and-grooved floating panel supported by three dovetailed transverse stretchers, two with exposed tenons, the short sides of the frame top with exposed tenons, the deep curvilinear beaded-edged apron carved with scrolling foliage and hidden tennoned to the top, two round stretchers mortised and tennoned into the long aprons through large openings in the legs, the legs similarly carved in the shape of scrolling foliage constructed with tenons fitting into the underside of the frame top and terminating in peg feet, each pair of legs conjoined on the shorter sides with a pair of beaded-edged rectangular stretchers, the bottom with exposed tenons, forming a |=| or ladder-shape structure, the ladder-shape structures constructed to pivot on the round stretchers connecting the apron and foldable inside the cavity formed by the aprons and the top.

Exhibited: Denver Art Museum, Denver, 1997-99.
Grace Wu Bruce, Chan Chair and Qin Bench: The Dr. S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture II, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1998, cat. no. 32, pp. 122-123.

Literature: Grace Wu Bruce, Two Decades of Ming Furniture, Beijing, 2010, p. 85.
Grace Wu Bruce, Ming Furniture Through My Eyes, Beijing, 2015, p. 88.

Note: "This delicate folding kang table of ancient lineage, with leaf-shaped legs ending on pads, a motif from the Song dynasty era."

This exquisite table, with the deep curvilinear-shaped aprons and carved leaf spandrels as well as the flowing leaf-shaped legs and feet on pads, is reminiscent of early Song furniture forms seen in paintings and woodblock illustrations. Conveniently folded away for storage or travelling, this kang table is another example of the growing body of folding furniture made during the Ming dynasty that has been recently rediscovered.

An example of a folding kang table is illustrated in the National Heritage Board, Asian Civilisations Museum: The Chinese Collection, Singapore, 1997, pl. 116. Two other examples are in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhu Jiajin and Wang Shixiang, eds, Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Gongyi Meishubian [The complete collection of Chinese arts], vol. 11, Beijing, 1987, p. 141.

Sotheby's. Ming Furniture – The Dr S Y Yip Collection, Hong Kong, 07 October 2015