A very rare 'huanghuali' demountable trestle-leg altar table (Qiaotou'an), 17th century

Peter Lai Antiques, Hong Kong, 1991.

In high-ranking Chinese households of the late Ming and Qing dynasties, tables of such impressive proportions with upturned ends demonstrated the status and wealth of their owners. Though Western connoisseurs generally term grand tables of this type ‘altar tables,’ modern cabinet-makers tend to refer to the form simply as qiaotou’an (‘recessed-leg tables with everted flanges’). Tables of this grand type are discussed in Wen Zhenheng’s (1585-1645) influential Zhangwuzhi [Treatise on Superfluous Things], the late seventeenth-century guide to refined taste. Here, Wen recommended that such tables be placed underneath a painting and even suggested that “one may place such things as fantastic rocks, seasonal flowers, or miniature tray-landscapes; but avoid garish objects such as red lacquerware”. Although Wen warned against the use of excessive carving, the lively openwork panels and spandrels of phoenix are balanced by the simplicity and visual weight of its large huanghuali slabs.

Indeed, the present table is particularly notable for its carved decoration and liberal use of wood. Intricately carved with tender yet grand phoenix to the spandrels, and matching phoenix designs hewn from solid planks at the trestle panels, the present table appears to belong to a rare and desirable group of tables featuring corresponding zoomorphic openwork designs. A huanghuali altar table of similar length (225 cm) with related openwork phoenix spandrels and side panels, was situated in the Chonghua Palace, Beijing, where it was used as a study for the emperor’s children, and is illustrated in Hu Desheng, The Palace Museum Collection. A Treasury of Ming & Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, vol. I, Beijing, 2007, pl. 308; see, also, a shorter (179 cm) jichimu table, formerly in the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, featuring related phoenix spandrels and lingzhi trestle panels in Sarah Handler, ‘Classical Chinese Furniture in the Renaissance Collection’, Chinese Furniture Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-2003, Hong Kong, 2004, p. 34, fig 14. A larger (289 cm) but related example with lingzhi spandrels and confronted chilong trestle panels was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 11th July 2020, lot 111 for over sixty million Hong Kong dollars [7.6m USD].

The present table is also notable for its construction, and was meant to be easily demountable into its nine component parts (plank top, two trestles, the long and short side aprons, and two bracing rails). Only a few other examples of this type are known, including a huanghuali example with phoenix spandrels and side panels in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (accession no. 97.25.1a-I) (Fig. 1), illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 42; and a related pingtou’an with folding aprons formerly in the collection of Dr. S.Y. Yip, illustrated by Grace Wu Bruce in Dreams of Chu Tan Chamber and Romance with Huanghuali Wood: The Dr. S Y Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1991, pp 76-77, pl. 26, and subsequently sold at Christie’s New York, 20th September 2002, lot 59.

For other related qiaotou’an of comparable size and quality, compare another (252 cm) from the Qing Court Collection with lingzhi spandrels and trestle panels illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 125; and another (203 cm) of lingzhi design sold in our London rooms, 4th November 2020, lot 121. For more information as to the historical role of the present design and other examples of the form, see Sarah Handler ‘Side Tables, a Surface for Treasures and the Gods’, Orientations, May 1996, pp 32–41.