A JICHIMU TAPERED KANG CABINET, YUANJIAO KANGGUI, EARLY QING DYNASTY

拍品描述

A JICHIMU TAPERED KANG CABINET, YUANJIAO KANGGUI, EARLY QING DYNASTY China, 17th-18th century. The cabinet made of jichimu, with characteristic attractive graining resembling bird feathers, and a rounded protruding rectangular top with 'ice-plate' edge supported on slightly splayed, rounded corner posts, beaded where they meet the side panels and doors, with rounded, molded frames and fitted with rectangular lock plates and pulls. The doors opening from a central stile to reveal two shelves and a pair of drawers with flower-blossom lock plates and oval pulls, all above a plain beaded apron and shaped stretchers. Expert’s note: Jichimu (鸡翅木 / 雞翅木, literally “chicken-wing wood”) is a traditional Chinese furniture wood prized above all for its highly distinctive grain. Dimensions: Size 60 x 38.7 x 18 cm Cabinets of this small size would have been used on a bed or kang in Northern China, and in the corridor of an alcove canopy bed in Southern China. The use of jichimu and long rectangular hardware point to Fujian province as the origin of this piece. Cabinets of this form were manufactured from the Ming Dynasty onwards. A typical feature of this form is to use the two doors to display the natural beauty and grain of the wood, which is superbly executed in the present lot. Literature comparison: Compare a related example illustrated by Tian Jiaqing, Chinese Classical Furniture of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, fig.103. A related jichimi cabinet of similar form with a shaped apron is illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol. II, 1990, Hong Kong, p. 150, no. D21. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s New York, 20 September 2002, lot 30 Price: USD 38,240 or approx. EUR 62,000 (for two) converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form and size (62.9 x 50.6 x 26.5 cm).

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