EARLY QING DYNASTY

Details

A HUANGHUALI SIX-POSTER CANOPY BED, JIAZICHUANG
EARLY QING DYNASTY
The rectangular bed frame is with a soft-mat seat set above a high waist and decorated with bamboo-form struts dividing scroll patterned panels. The curvilinear apron is carved in low relief with leafy scrolls, lingzhi fungus and chi dragons, supported on legs of square section with ruyi carving at the shoulder and terminating on raised horse-shoe feet. The four corner posts and two front posts are joined with horizontal openwork panels of three sections forming a lattice-work gallery. The lower pierced with stylised dragons, the middle reticulated with compound ruyi blooms and floral designs, and the upper carved with begonia roundels, all below a top rail and canopy reticulated with entwined chi dragons among scrolls.
93 7/8 in. (238.5 cm.) high, 89 in. (226 cm.) wide, 61 3/16 in. (155.4 cm.) deep
This item is made of a type of Dalbergia wood which is subject to CITES export/import restrictions since 2 January 2017. This item can only be shipped to addresses within Hong Kong or collected from our Hong Kong saleroom and office unless a CITES re-export permit is granted. Please contact the department for further information.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory, tortoiseshell and crocodile. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

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Priscilla Kong

pkong@christies.cpm +852 29789958

Lot Essay

Canopy beds have either six or four posts. It was common to use drapery to create a private world within a closed curtain, and examples can be seen in Ming and Qing woodblock prints. The openwork design of geometric motifs on the surrounding panels is similar to that of window panels, see the Ming-dynasty publication Yuan Ye, The Garden Treatise, by Ji Cheng dated to 1631. Such design can maximise the aesthetics while utilising only small sections of the expensive material huanghuali. The design of four ruyi scrolls forming an enclosed pattern is also found on a four-poster bed with circular entrance in the Palace Museum collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 53 - Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 2-5, no. 1. Also see another six-poster huanghuali canopy bed, ibid., pp. 6-9, no. 2, with design of wan emblems on the surrounding panels.

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