Lot 2739 A large and impressive 'huanghuali' single-plank trestle leg table (Qiaotou'an), 17th Century. Height 88.3 cm; Width 200.3 cm; Depth 54 cm. Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 USD. © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Southern Private Collection, acquired in Hong Kong, 1990s.

Literature: Sarah Handler, "Outstanding Pieces in Private Rooms: Chinese Classical Furniture in New American Collections," Orientations, January 1993, figs 13 and 13a.

Note: This extraordinary altar table, known among Beijing cabinetmakers as a qiaotou’an, is distinguished by the construction of its top from a single plank of richly grained huanghuali. It is also striking for its precise and lively carving that reveal a master workshop, from the vivid chilong spandrels with their bodies coiling into scrollwork, to the confronted chilong that decorate the panels between the legs, and the fine ‘incense-stick’ beading on the legs which make the table appear taller.

Placed against the south wall of a grand hall, this table would have had a commanding presence, leaving no doubt as to wealth and social standing of its owner. Such long rectangular tables with recessed legs and upturned ends were generally placed in reception halls where important male visitors were received and family ceremonies took place. The prominent scholar Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645) in his influential Chang wu zhi [Treaties on superfluous things], refers to tables of this design, made from a single plank of wood as “natural tables” and explains that their “length should not exceed eight feet, nor the thickness of the top five inches. The end flanges must not be too sharp, but smooth and rounded, which is the antique pattern.” Ironically, Wen also advises against excessive ornamentation: “Do not carve the vulgar patterns such as dragons, phoenixes, flowers and grasses.” Despite his remonstrations, several ornately-decorated examples, including the preset example, are known, exemplifying the myriad furniture tastes of the late Ming dynasty. 

The construction of the present table, with integral panels between the front and back legs, reduced the number of overall component parts to a handful: the top, the four aprons, and the two leg and panel pieces. Compared to a typical recessed-leg table, those of the present type could be dismantled and transported much more easily. An image of a similar qiatou’an, demounted into its few component parts, is illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, p. 128. 

Compare the present example with a demountable qiaotou’an of similar proportions in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (accession no. 97.25.1a-I), illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in ibid., p. 127, cat. no. 42. Also composed of a single plank of slightly longer but narrower dimensions, the Minneapolis example also features incense-stick beading to the legs, with ornate coiled chilong decoration of slightly varied design to the spandrels and panels between the legs. Another demountable ‘single-plank’ qiaotou’an, considerably wider but of similar depth, resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 1996.339) (Fig. 1) illustrated by Sarah Handler in Austere Luminosity of Classical Chinese Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, p. 237, fig. 14.16, with remarkably similar decoration to the spandrels and the trestle panels, with addorsed chilong amidst scrollwork on the former and coiled chilong confronting a flaming jewel on the latter.

Fig. 1. Side table, late Ming (1368–1644)–early Qing (1644–1911) dynasty, late Ming (1368–1644)–early Qing (1644–1911) dynasty. Wood (huanghuali). H. 99.1 cm; W. 52.7 cm; L. 285.8 cm. Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Gift and Rogers Fund, 1996. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 1996.339)