A RARE PAIR OF HUANGHUALI COMPOUND CABINETS, SIJIANGUI MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY | 明十七世紀 黃花梨雕雙龍供蓮紋四件頂箱櫃成對

Peter Lai Antiques, Hong Kong, 10th April 1990.

黎氏古玩，香港，1990年4月10日

These massive cabinets are the largest type of furniture produced by Ming cabinet makers. Composed of a wide square-corner cabinet and a smaller chest that was placed on top, they combine functionality, durability, elegance and simplicity, characteristics that define classical Chinese furniture. The masterful craftsmanship in the present lot with the decoration of the turbulent waves on jagged rocks on the sides in particular suggests an imperial association for the cabinets. Compound cabinets were the piece-of-resistance in the home of wealthy families. Displayed in inner reception halls or kept in the women private quarters, their sheer size and angular silhouette were designed to create an impression of awe. In a passage from the 18th century novel Honglou meng [The dream of the red chamber], Granny Liu, an elderly country woman describes seeing for the first time the furniture in the Jia family compound: "They say that 'great families live in great houses' and truly when I first went into Your Ladyship's apartment yesterday and saw those great chests and cupboards and tables and beds, they took my breath away. That great wardrobe of yours is higher and wider than one of our rooms back home".

Chinese garments were never hanged but folded into flat rectangles and stacked in cabinets, and the large size of these cabinets made them ideal for storing garments or other large items. The upper chests, which were less accessible and often required a ladder to reach them, were used for storing accessories or garments that were needed less frequently. Large chests were part of a bride's dowry, and the Ming dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei [Plum in the Golden Vase], reveals that lady's fur coats were kept in large cabinets (da chu) that could be locked.

Two pairs of compound cabinets, one pair with the apron gracefully shaped but undecorated, and the second made of camphor wood and the apron carved with chrysanthemums, formerly in the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture in California, are illustrated in Sarah Handler, 'Proportion and Joinery in Four-part Wardrobes', Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 36-7, pls 1 and 2; and a cabinet was sold in our New York rooms, 21st September 2006, lot 34.

此對櫃用料講究，木質細密油潤，櫃內髹朱漆，牙板中央雕雙龍供蓮，两側飾江崖海水，氣勢非凡，應為皇家之物。縱覽明式家具，屬頂箱櫃最為敦碩。方角大櫃上設較小頂箱，實用耐久，簡雅素麗，堪稱中式家具儀範。 頂箱櫃乃朱門大戶之傲人家什，或置於內廳，或立於閨房，尺寸醒目，輪廓挺拔，引人油然嘆羨。《紅樓夢》中，村嫗劉姥姥入大觀園，生平頭一回見到賈府家具，只道：「人人都說大家子住大房，昨兒見了老太太正房，配上大箱、大櫃、大桌子、大床，果然威武。那櫃子比我們一間房子還大還高。」

中式衣物不興懸掛，而是折疊平整後放入櫃中，此類大櫃存放日常衣物或大件什物尤為理想。頂箱需梯子方可夠到，故宜儲放首飾及日常不用之衣物。大箱亦作女子嫁妝，讀《金瓶梅》又知，婦人所穿貂皮大襖便放在帶鎖大櫥裡。

可比兩對頂箱櫃，一對，牙條造型優美，未施雕飾，另一對，樟木造，牙條雕菊花，原中國古典家具博物館所藏，加利福尼亞，見 Sarah Handler，《Proportion and Joinery in Four-part Wardrobes》，刊於《Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999》，香港，1999年，頁36-37，圖版1及2；市場上曾見一例，售於紐約蘇富比2006年9月21日，編號34。