Lot 75. A rare and large pair of huanghuali square-corner display cabinets, wanligui, 17th century; 141 by 51.8 by h. 193 cm, 55 ½ by 20 ¾ by h. 76 in. Estimate: 4,000,000 - 6,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 57,218,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

comprising ten main leaves flanked by a pair of leaves uniting to form an openwork frame, each of the central leaves carved through with a rectangular panel and accentuated with three openwork cartouches, one above the hollow panel and two below, the upper one with a central lobed cartouche reticulated with stylised chilong rendered in the form of scrollwork and flanking a fu character, the motif of the mythical beasts repeated on the lower section, with two openwork lobed cartouches skilfully decorated with stylised chilong, the lower one further accentuated with a shou character, all above a beaded-edged apron detailed in low relief with chilong divided by the central ruyi motif.

Note: Striking for their imposing size, this pair of cabinets with open shelves demonstrate the exceptional skill of 17th century furniture makers in their ability to take full advantage of the vivid colours and patterns of precious hardwood.

This type of cabinets with multiple open shelves, known as Wanligui (Wanli period cabinets), is highly unusual. First appearing in the mid- to late Ming dynasty, they were generally kept in the scholar’s studio, where their arrangement either side by side or on opposite walls, created a visual symmetry sought after in Chinese room design. The top shelves were used for storing books and scrolls as well as treasured antiques, while writing implements, such as brushes and ink, were kept inside the drawers. The sturdier and enclosed lower were on the other hand, used for storing more fragile objects or tea utensils that could be brought out in the presence of guests. Referred to as lianggegui by modern cabinet makers, this type of bookshelf seldom appears on contemporary woodblock printed books, attesting to its rarity.

The display and storage of books in the scholar’s studio was of great importance as it was indicative of the level of education and cultural refinement of the master of the house. The scholar Gao Lian (1573-1620) in his Zun sheng bajian [Eight discourses on the art of living], first published in 1591, mentions that bookcases “should be used for placing one’s favourite books, which could be Confucian classics, poems, Buddhist scriptures or for important medical literature and calligraphy”. For the Ming dynasty scholar Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645), it was however important not to display too many books and scrolls “otherwise the room looks like a bookstore” (Wen Zhenheng, Chang wu zhi [Treaties on superfluous things], translated in the catalogue to the exhibition Beyond the Screen. Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1996, p. 85).

Cabinets with three open shelves are very rare and no other closely related example appears to have been published. This pair of cabinets share similarities with a smaller cabinet fashioned with two open shelves from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture. Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, London, 1986, pl. 138.