A PAIR OF SOUTHERN ELM (JUMU) ROUND-CORNERED TAPERED CABINETS, YUANJIAOGUI QING DYNASTY, 18TH – 19TH CENTURY

each of rectangular section and surmounted with a cabinet top with a round edge beginning and ending with a narrow flat band, supported with four slightly splayed stiles at each corner forming the tapered silhouette, the front with a pair of single panel doors, each with a frame fitted with a curved and cusped metal plate adorned with a lock receptacle and door pull, a shaped stretcher resting below the doors with a plain straight apron beneath, the side aprons similarly left plain, the interior divided into three shelves, the central one comprising two drawers, the lower one with a hidden compartment

The aprons, probably together with the stretchers below the doors, have been replaced. The round corners have been polished down to square edges. The interiors have been altered. The drawers are made of jichimu or tielimu.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Skilfully constructed from matching jumu boards with a striking grain pattern, these cabinets are particularly rare for their large size and construction as they lack the central stile (shuangan) between the doors. Cabinets of this form are referred to as yuanjiaogui, literally translated as ‘round-corner cabinet’, and were known in the Ming dynasty as gui or chu, as well as yichu, ‘clothes cupboard’, a term used in the 15th century carpenter manual Lu Ban jing [Classic of Lu Ban]. Functionality and aesthetics are cleverly achieved through the harmonious balance of flat surfaces and round members together with the four recessed stiles that slope gently outwards from the top corners almost imperceptibly. As George N. Kates notes in Chinese Household Furniture, New York, 1948, p. 32, these cabinets display the Chinese craftsmen’s ability to ‘handle inflexible wood in such masterly fashion that, almost unaware, one receives the impression of design in a living medium’.

A similar pair of cabinets in nanmu was sold at Christie’s New York, 17th September 2008, lot 149; a slightly smaller huanghuali cabinet was sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2008, lot 248; and a smaller pair, from the Hung collection, is illustrated in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture: One Hundred Examples from the Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, pl. 3. See also a pair of similar design but with a central stile, in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture. Ming and Early Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1990, vol. II, pl. D23; and another from the collection of the Marchesa Taliani de Marchio, published in Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture, Tokyo, 1962, pl. 111, no. 90.

Tapered cabinets made their appearance in the Ming period but quickly grew in popularity thanks to their elegant appearance and sturdy construction which was suitable for storing clothing. Although a matter of speculation, their origin is traced back to rectangular chests with pyramid-shaped lids, which in the Song period became larger and featured a pair of doors at the front. A cabinet of this type is illustrated as raised on a table in the Southern Song handscroll Sericulture, now in the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum, illustrated in Sarah Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkeley, 2001, fig. 15.5.

Highly practical in their construction with easily removable shelves, these cabinets were found in women’s quarters as they were part of a bride’s dowry. Tapered cabinets also provided elegant and functional storage space in scholars’ offices. In the famous late Ming novel Jing ping mei (The plum in the golden vase), the main male protagonist Ximen Qing is described as storing his official clothes in a cabinet in his office (Sarah Handler, Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture, Berkeley, 2001, p. 178).