Lot 111. A very rare huanghuali clothes rack, yijia, Mid Qing Dynasty; 188cm (74in) high x 56cm (22in) deep x 202cm (79 1/2in) wide. (9). Sold for £53,220 (Estimate £15,000-£20,000). © Bonhams 2001-2022

The two slender corner posts of square section and joined to the top rail terminating with dragon-heads, three additional horizontal openwork panels of chilong, coin-shaped scrolls, and angular floral scrolls, all fitted into shoe feet carved with large florettes and standing spandrels with openwork dragons, the wood of dark-chocolate tone.

Note: In China, clothing racks were used in men's and women's sleeping quarters for the temporary placement of garments. Clothes could be draped over the top rail or middle panel. At night, nobles tossed their discarded robes over a garment rack to protect them from wrinkles. Clothes racks also functioned as a way of displaying fashionable pieces of clothing. They often formed part of the dowry and were decorated with auspicious symbols to promote marital bliss and longevity.

While a clothes rack was a common piece of furniture in the sleeping quarters of both men and women, only a few hardwood examples have survived. See a similar huanghuali clothes rack, with similar coin design, illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol.II, London, 1990, p.183, E39. See also K.Mazurkewich, Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 2006, p.156. A related mahogany clothes rack, Qing dynasty, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol.2, Hong Kong, 2002, p.281, no.237.

Compare also with a related huanghuali clothes rack, Qing dynasty, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2021, lot 2825.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, 3 November 2022, London, New Bond Street