A Huanghuali Square Games Table, Qizhuo Qing Dynasty, 18th Century

the square panelled removable top with rounded edge, concealing a rectangular recess for a ivory-inlaid shuanglu board and a wire-inlaid folding weiqi and xiangqi board and two circular apertures for gaming counters, the whole supported on a rounded waist above a drawer to each side and raised on round legs joined by humpback stretchers

Purchased from Hei Hung-Lu, Hong Kong, late 1980s/early 1990s.

This rare games table is in good condition with the exception of minor age cracks to the top, possibly replaced games boards and minor surface scratches and typical wear commensurate with age.
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The present table is notable for its clarity of form, where the decoration has been confined to the cloud-shaped spandrels and horse-hoof feet to skilfully conceal its ingenious construction. The table top is easily removed to reveal a complex arrangement of game boards set against a boxwood frame, two small compartments for storing game pieces and four small hidden drawers. Tables of this type are very practical as they were used for both dining and playing games. They were frequently depicted in contemporary paintings and woodblock illustrations and often shown used by ladies, as in the painting Fang ting cai hua [Picking flowers by a pavilion] by the painter Yao Wen-han (fl. mid. 18^th century), in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition New Visions at the Ch’ing Court. Giuseppe Castiglione and Western-Style Trends, Taipei, 2007, cat. no. 32.

Games tables have a long history in China, with early surviving examples used for the divination game liubo dating to the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220). Tables constructed with weiqi boards, on the other hand, originated in the Tang dynasty (618-906), and their popularity significantly grew during the Song dynasty (960-1279). Sarah Handler in Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, notes that according to literary sources Emperor Xuanzong (690-705) was very fond of this game and ‘once, when the Precious Consort saw that he was losing, she untied one of her miniature dogs, which promptly jumped onto the board and disarranged the pieces, to the emperor’s delight’ (p. 187).

A similar huanghuali square games table but with S-shaped braces, in the Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, is illustrated in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture. Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties, New York, 1971, pl. 73, together with another games table in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, pl. 74; a slightly smaller table was sold in our New York rooms, 9^th/10^th October 1987, lot 398; another was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3^rd December 2008, lot 2531; and a rectangular example from the collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth was sold at Christie’s New York, 17^th March 2015, lot 44. For an earlier version of a games table, see a square-shaped lacquer example attributed to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Furniture, Beijing, 2007, pl. 334.