
Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Sold for US$123,855 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistCataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
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清 十八世紀 黃花梨三層全敞帶抽屜架格
This bookcase is a classic type illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Vol. II, p. 140, plate D3, with a set of two drawers suspended from the second shelf and lacking galleries at the sides and back. The present lot could be classified as an open shelf stand but can serve both purposes as it did in the Cowles home.
See Dr. Chu-Pak Lau, Classical Chinese Huanghuali furniture from the Haven Collection (Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2016), no. 58, pp.244-5, designed with a gallery on upper two shelves, and no. 57 p. 242-3. For a four-shelf bookcase with wumu galleries, in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, see Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis: the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999), no. 49, pp 142-3.
See also Sarah Handler's illuminating article, "Cabinets and Shelves Containing All Things in China." JCCFS, Volume 4, no.1, pp. 26-27.