The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung. Lot 7. A large huanghuali recessed-leg altar table, Late Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 215 by 50.5 by h. 84 cm. Lot sold: 3,024,000 HKD (Estimate: 3,000,000 - 4,000,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

the long rectangular top set with a single floating panel in a moulded frame, above the beaded apron and shaped spandrels elegantly carved with stylised ruyi-cloud scrolls, all supported on subtly splayed legs of circular section, each pair of legs joined by two horizontal stretchers on the shorter sides, the finely grained timber of a rich honey-brown tone.

Provenance: Nicholas Grindley, London, 24th November 1981.

Note: Impressive for its generous proportions, this monumental table is also distinctive for the subtle openwork and carved designs of its spandrels. Tables of this type with cloud-shaped spandrels and double stretchers were produced with raised or straight ends, and of varying lengths from small side tables to sizable ones with ample surfaces for painting and viewing handscrolls. The present example is among the larger versions that would have been ideal for unrolling long pieces of paper or silk. An illustration from a woodblock printed edition of Lie Nü Zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women) from the late 16th/early 17th centuries (illustrated in Chu-pak Lau, Classical Chinese Huanghuali Furniture from the Haven Collection, Hong Kong, 2016, p. 148) shows how a deeper table of this type was used by a lady, served by three attendants, who is about to start writing or painting on a scroll. 

Two shorter tables with openwork spandrels of a slightly different cloud-shaped design appear to have been published. One measuring 194 cm in length is in the Haven Collection, ibid., cat. no. 31; the other, of only 110 cm in length and classified as a wine table, is in the Beijing Hardwood Furniture Factory Collection, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture. Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, London, 1986, pl. 78.

For tables with the more common type of cloud spandrels without the openwork decoration, see a slightly longer and wider table from the Qing Court collection and still preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 109; and a shorter table in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. W.7-1969), illustrated in Craig Clunas, Chinese Furniture, London, 1988, pp. 46-7, figs 30 and 32. 

Rectangular table of plain polished huali wood with circular in-set legs and carved spandrel in the form of a 'cloud head', Ming dynasty, ca. 1550-1650. Height: 32cm, Of top length: 195.5cm, Of top depth: 55.7cm.  (c)Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sotheby's. HOTUNG The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 8 October 2022