16TH-17TH CENTURY

Lingzhi-form end panels appear to have been a popular decorative theme on demountable huanghuali tables during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, and seem to have featured predominantly on tables of exceptional length. The size and orientation of the openwork lingzhi elements vary widely, but the association of lingzhi with immortality clearly appealed to scholars, and the bold, simple rounded lines of the lingzhi work well to soften the rigid angular lines of the trestle-leg table. A rare tielimu table, with an inscription dating it to 1640, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, carved with large pendent lingzhi on the openwork panels, is illustrated and discussed by S. Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, p. 226, pl. 14.3 where the author also illustrates a Chongzhen period (1628-1644) woodblock print depicting a scene from the Jin Ping Mei, in which a table with upright lingzhi panels is shown being used as a side table in a reception hall. Other examples of huanghuali demountable trestle-leg tables with lingzhi-shaped panels include one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Ming Furniture – The Dr. S.Y. Yip Collection, 7 October 2015, lot 127; a very large example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1823; and an example from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, illustrated by R. H. Ellsworth in Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, New York, 1996, pp. 174-75.