A rare 'huanghuali' recessed-leg wine table (Jiuzhuo), Late Ming dynasty, 17th century

My Humble House, Taipei, 2004.

Restrained in form, with subtle molding along the legs, aprons and frame the only nod to decoration, this small table, referred to as a wine table (jiuzhuo) captures the minimalist aesthetic that is a hallmark of late Ming furniture design. The sturdy legs are of square section, with beaded edges and thumb-groove molding down the center, and the beading continues onto the aprons and spandrels, which are otherwise plain. The outside edge of the frame is likewise molded in a simple yet elegant manner, and the top is a single panel of huanghuali, a rare feature for such a table in which many other examples use burl or stone.

In Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1990, pp 54-55, Wang Shixiang writes that small, recessed-leg tables of the present form were historically referred to as wine tables (jiuzhuo) as they were used domestically for serving wine and food, as depicted in paintings going back to at least the Song dynasty. See, for example, Night Revels, the famous painting by Gu Hongzhong (937-975), a twelfth-century copy of which is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, in which its subject, Han Xizai sits before a small recessed-leg table laden with food, illustrated by Sarah Handler in 'The Chinese Bed', Chinese Furniture: Selected articles from Orientations 1984-1994, Hong Kong, 1996, pp 8-9, fig. 5. An example of a recessed-leg wine table nearly identical to the present work, save for the presence of a beaded lip around the top of the frame not found in the present lot, is illustrated by Wang Shixiang in ibid., vol. II, p. 77, pl. B34, who cites it as an archetypal example of a jiuzhuo. 

Despite their common depiction in paintings, wine tables in huanghuali rarely come to the market. Compare the present example with a smaller huanghuali wine table with shaped legs and aprons sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2025, lot 813. See, also, a recessed-leg table of similar dimensions but with round legs and without any molding, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd April 2019, lot 3064.