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Lot Essay
The round-corner tapered cabinet, or yuanjiaogui, is amongst the most beautiful and elegant designs in all of classical Chinese furniture. The very subtle splay in its design lends a sense of stability and balance to the form while retaining a very graceful and pleasing profile. The form was widely used in cabinet making throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties.
As elucidated by C. Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, 1995, Hong Kong, p. 130, yuanjiaogui are of two types: those with circular members and those with square members, which are considerably rarer. The present cabinet falls into the latter, more rare type, but is distinguished by the elegant and clever use of a deep ‘thumb-mold’ surrounded by raised beading at nearly every edge of the cabinet, including at the edges of the doors themselves. Such playful carving softens the hard edges of the square members while maintaining the overall appearance of stability and sturdiness; compare a similarly-proportioned yuanjiaogui from the Lu Ming Shi Collection, illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce in Ming Furniture in the Forbidden City, Beijing, 2006, p. 199, which uses a slightly simpler bead-work to similar effect.
As elucidated by C. Evarts, Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, 1995, Hong Kong, p. 130, yuanjiaogui are of two types: those with circular members and those with square members, which are considerably rarer. The present cabinet falls into the latter, more rare type, but is distinguished by the elegant and clever use of a deep ‘thumb-mold’ surrounded by raised beading at nearly every edge of the cabinet, including at the edges of the doors themselves. Such playful carving softens the hard edges of the square members while maintaining the overall appearance of stability and sturdiness; compare a similarly-proportioned yuanjiaogui from the Lu Ming Shi Collection, illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce in Ming Furniture in the Forbidden City, Beijing, 2006, p. 199, which uses a slightly simpler bead-work to similar effect.