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Lot Essay
As suggested by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol. I, 1990, Hong Kong, pp. 82 and 85, cabinets and stands with shelves fall into four essential types: bookcases and open shelf stands (jiage), cabinets with open shelves (liangegui), round-corner tapered cabinets (yuanjiaogui), and square-corner cabinets (fangjiaogui). The present cabinet falls into the third above- mentioned form, the round-corner tapered cabinet or yuanjiaogui. Round-cornered cabinets are usually splayed with round-edged tops that protrude beyond the side posts, and the present cabinet is no exception to this standard. Interestingly, there is a difference in the historical terminology between northern and southern China whereby in the north the term for cabinet, gui, was referred to as chu in the south.
Several examples of this type are known. One of slightly larger size (47 5/16 in. high) dated to the 17th century in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, 1999, pp. 150-51, no. 52, where the authors note that "round-corner, sloping style cabinets, yuanjiaogui, were made in sizes ranging from those suitable for table tops to more imposing storage furniture over seven feet in height."
See another cabinet illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, no. D22. See, also, the slightly larger (48 7/8 in. high) cabinet, sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2015. A larger pair of cabinets (72½ in. high) illustrated by Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago, 1995, pp. 130-31, no. 61, later sold at Christie's, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 19. A pair of slightly smaller cabinets (37 in. high) was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2014, lot 3652.
Several examples of this type are known. One of slightly larger size (47 5/16 in. high) dated to the 17th century in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, 1999, pp. 150-51, no. 52, where the authors note that "round-corner, sloping style cabinets, yuanjiaogui, were made in sizes ranging from those suitable for table tops to more imposing storage furniture over seven feet in height."
See another cabinet illustrated by Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1990, no. D22. See, also, the slightly larger (48 7/8 in. high) cabinet, sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2015. A larger pair of cabinets (72½ in. high) illustrated by Wang Shixiang and Curtis Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chicago, 1995, pp. 130-31, no. 61, later sold at Christie's, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 19. A pair of slightly smaller cabinets (37 in. high) was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2014, lot 3652.