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Lot Essay
A similar flush-corner table of smaller proportions, formerly in the collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, was sold at Christie's New York, 18 March 2015, lot. 136. Although there appear to be no published comparable examples of this unusual design and form, individual decorative elements on the present example can be seen on other flush-corner waistless tables. The most distinctive feature is the straight stretcher joining the legs on each side. This feature is found on Song-dynasty examples, commonly with one stretcher along the long sides and two along the short sides. The painting Five Scholars of the Tang by the Southern Song dynasty painter Liu Songnian (1174-1224) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, shows three scholars seated at a marble-inset table with square-section legs joined in this configuration.
In an essay published in C.L. Ma Collection: Traditional Chinese Furniture from the Greater Shanxi Region, Curtis Evarts writes that straight stretchers "had virtually disappeared as a result of developed joinery techniques", however examples of this type can be found in some Qing provincial pieces (p. 71). He references a jumu stone-inset recessed-leg table in the Peabody Essex Museum inscribed on the underside with a Kangxi date of 1662, illustrated by Nancy Berliner, Friends of the House: Furniture from China's Towns and Villages, Peabody Essex Museum Collections, 1995, no. 31. The use of precious huanghuali wood suggests that the present table is not a provincial example, but draws instead from the rich vocabulary of regional designs.
The ruyi-shaped motifs between the stretchers and the underside of the top are more commonly seen in early Qing lacquer tables. See, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Vol. 53, Beijing, 2002, no. 99, for a qiangjin and tianqi lacquer example with similar upright ruyi struts. The mitred corner brackets below the apron are another feature seen on early Qing lacquer examples. The placement on the present table is a bit unusual, as these corner brackets are more often found on the aprons of chairs or the spandrels of inset-leg tables.
In an essay published in C.L. Ma Collection: Traditional Chinese Furniture from the Greater Shanxi Region, Curtis Evarts writes that straight stretchers "had virtually disappeared as a result of developed joinery techniques", however examples of this type can be found in some Qing provincial pieces (p. 71). He references a jumu stone-inset recessed-leg table in the Peabody Essex Museum inscribed on the underside with a Kangxi date of 1662, illustrated by Nancy Berliner, Friends of the House: Furniture from China's Towns and Villages, Peabody Essex Museum Collections, 1995, no. 31. The use of precious huanghuali wood suggests that the present table is not a provincial example, but draws instead from the rich vocabulary of regional designs.
The ruyi-shaped motifs between the stretchers and the underside of the top are more commonly seen in early Qing lacquer tables. See, Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Vol. 53, Beijing, 2002, no. 99, for a qiangjin and tianqi lacquer example with similar upright ruyi struts. The mitred corner brackets below the apron are another feature seen on early Qing lacquer examples. The placement on the present table is a bit unusual, as these corner brackets are more often found on the aprons of chairs or the spandrels of inset-leg tables.