Lot 84. A very rare huanghuali and hongmu scholar's table, 17th-18th century;86cm (33 7/8in) high x 110.5cm (43 2/2in) wide x 49cm (19 2/8in) deep. Estimate £ 40,000-60,000. Sold for £ 65,062 (€ 72,480). Courtesy Bonhams.

The rectangular top with a mitred frame and moulded edge above a recessed waist fitted with a large drawer and decorated with reticulated designs of oblong cartouches, all above a straight apron and four rectangular legs joined by a hongmu 'cracked-ice' lattice footrest. 

Provenance: an English private collection, and thence by descent. The collection was formed by the grandfather of the former owner who was the Assistant Commissioner, Shanghai Municipal Police, 1919-1928. His father was a Protestant missionary in China. The family returned to England shortly after the Second World War.

Note: Displaying a remarkably elegant shape and complexity of design, noted in the pierced waist fitted with an unusually large drawer and the fine reticulated 'crackled ice' designs serving as footrest, the present table combines ingenuous construction and linear proportions into a single piece of furniture.

Large tables, such as the present example, would have occupied a central position in a scholar's studio. Their broad surface could easily accommodate a variety of decorative objects and the accoutrements typically associated with the scholar, such as a brushes, inkstones, water pots, brush pots and small scholar's rocks.

Conveying a sense of structural lightness, the high waist of the table provides added strength, making the presence of stretchers redundant.

With its high waist and a large drawer, the present table illustrates how variations within a classic design could be formed through subtle changes and refinement of details. The drawer was probably used to store writing material and is cleverly hidden below the table frame. Drawers are often associated with 17th-18th furniture construction, as they first entered the Chinese furniture vocabulary with the introduction of Western-style furniture.

An example of huanghuali table, late 17th century, fitted with a drawer, is illustrated by M.Flacks, Classical Chinese Furniture, New York, 1997, p.189.

See also a huanghuali table, Ming dynasty, featuring a similarly-shaped reticulated design for the waist, illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseur of Chinese Furniture. Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol.2, Hong Kong, 1990, p.94, no.B77.

Huanghuali tables displaying such elegant reticulated hongmu lower panels as the present example are exceptionally rare. Conveying a dramatic visual effect, the openwork design, known as binglieshi, or 'ice-crackled' decoration, was described in Ji Cheng's influential book, 'The Garden Treatise', Yuanye, compiled in 1631, as the 'best design for window panels for the simple yet most elegant lines. The auspicious design heightened the rich luminosity of the costly huanghuali wood and varying light sources created an intriguing network of shadows throughout the day.

A huanghuali high-waisted table with similar proportions as the present example and dated to the 16th-17th century, is illustrated by Kai-Yin Lo in Classical and Vernacular Chinese Furniture in the Living Environment, Hong Kong, 1998, pp.148-149, no.26.