A large zitan table cabinet, guanpixiang

Mid Qing Dynasty

Footnotes

清中期 紫檀官皮箱

Provenance:
A Hong Kong private collection

Table cabinets of this type are also referred to as seal chests. They were used as dressing cases by both men and women to store toiletries, jewellery, and other valuables. They were also used on scholars' desks for the storage of stationery, writing implements and personal seals.

It is rare to find table cabinets of large size made of zitan wood such as the present lot. See a similar example illustrated in In Pursuit of Antiquities: Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong, 1995, p.298. See also a zitan canted-top table cabinet, late Ming to early Qing dynasty, of similar size from the Dr S.Y.Yip collection, illustrated by G.Wu Bruce, Zitan Furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hong Kong, 1999, pp.52-53, which was later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 April 2017, lot 3512.

紫檀為材，箱盝頂，頂面四角包白銅，箱頂部開子母扣與蓋合，門開兩扇，門框悶榫拍合，扇心獨板，門扇兩側安銅活頁，蓋緣與門扇安如意鎖頭，箱內三層五屜，屜們安鏤空雲頭紋銅活，箱兩側安白銅提環，左側有銅鏈，防止蓋身傾覆，箱底正面牙條成壼門曲邊，箱上下四角皆包銅。

官皮箱顧名思義即是官家所用皮箱，最早可追溯到宋代鏡箱，《魯班經匠家鏡》一條提到鏡箱，描述亦似官皮箱。明代多為皮質，頂部隆起，防塵防水，後演變成木質，隆頂演變成盝頂。然而官皮箱傳世頗多，可知已經飛入尋常百姓家。

此件紫檀官皮箱，用料皆為獨材，無拼接，發色身紫，沉鬱內斂。可參考一件相似之紫檀官皮箱，見《好古敏求：敏求精舍三十五週年紀念展》，香港，1995年，頁298。葉承耀醫生曾藏一件明末清初紫檀蕩頂官皮箱，與本件頗似，後售於香港蘇富比，2017年4月5日，拍品編號3512。