Lot 80. A huanghuali display cabinet, lianggegui, Ming dynasty, 17th century; 87.2 by 44.7 by h. 187.3 cm, 34 ¼ by 17 ½ by h. 73 ¾ in. Estimate: 1,500,000 - 2,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,276,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the large cabinet set with a pair of hinged doors composed of single-board floating panels within rectangular frames, opening to reveal a shelved interior with two drawers, beneath a display shelf with vertical spindles on the shorter sides, all supported on legs of square section joined by plain beaded aprons and spandrels.

Provenance : Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 417.

Note: This tall cabinet is notable for its sober and yet sophisticated elegance, which draws attention to the vivid patterns of the huanghuali door panels. The cabinet was left undecorated save for the beaded edges of the aprons and the cylindrical bars on the sides of the open shelf. The latter echo the latticework often found on Ming and Qing dynasty doors and windows, and served to create interesting shadows when light filtered through.

Known as lianggegui among modern Beijing cabinet-makers, cabinets with a high open shelf first appeared around the mid-to late Ming dynasty. Generally reserved for the scholar's studio, where the top shelf was used to display curious and rare antiquities, cabinets of this type are mentioned by Wen Zhenheng, the 17th century scholar and arbiter of refinement, in his Zhang wu zhi [Treaties on Superfluous Things]. Here he informs that cabinets (chu) had to be 'suitable for the display of antique bronzes, jades and curios'.

Display cabinets with vertical bars on the sides of the open shelf are unusual. For related examples see a pair of cabinets, with shaped aprons instead of bars, in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, illustrated in Stephen L. Little and James Jensen, 'Chinese Furniture in the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Frederic Mueller Bequest', Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 61, pl. 10; a slightly larger cabinet in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 183; and another, attributed to the 18th century, sold at Christie's New York, 24th March 2011, lot 1372.