A HUANGHUALI WASHBASIN STAND (MIANPENJIA) MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

with five slender cylindrical legs joined by two sets of five curved stretchers, double mitered into one another, creating a hexalobular floret shape, one set just below the top, used to support a basin, the other set at the base

M.D. Flacks, Ltd., London.

Few examples of Ming dynasty washbasins survive due to the inevitable wear and tear from copious amounts of water and frequent movement accommodating the daily ablutions of an affluent household. Two basic types of this form are known; those with the addition of a towel rack and those without, such as the present. Both are represented among the miniature wooden models found from the Pan family tombs in Shanghai. A stand similar to the present example from the tomb of Pan Yunzheng, dated to 1589, is illustrated in Sarah Handler, "Ablutions and Washing Clean: The Chinese Washbasin and Stand", JCCFS, Autumn, 1991, p. 27, fig. 9. Handler also illustrates a stand, of Hongmu, that relates closely to the present form, ibid., p. 28, figs. 10 and 10a, from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, and later sold at Christies New York, 19th September 1996, lot 14. Both are notable for two reasons; they each have five legs rather than the usual six and examples with curved, shaped stretchers are much rarer than those of the collapsible variety.  Wang Shixiang discusses this fixed, five-legged form of stand in Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 178, no. 83, noting the "ingenious design" of the radiating stretchers.  Wang also mentions that a three-legged stand with a similar hub-like stretcher is described in the famous 15th century carpenter's manual Lu Ban Jing and that the triangular opening at the center is referred to as a xiangyan (elephant's eye) implying that the form of the present stand was understood and known by the Yuan dynasty.  A folding washbasin stand is depicted in a Kangxi period painting of 'Beautiful Women', one of eight album leaves by Jiao Bingzhen, now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei and illustrated in Sarah Handlers article on the form, op. cit., p. 28, fig. 11.