A monumental walnut 'heitaomu' altar table (Qiaotouan), Qing dynasty, 18th century | 清十八世紀 黑桃木雕雲龍紋翹頭案

M.D. Flacks Ltd., London.

M.D. Flacks Ltd.，倫敦

This table is unusual not only for its monumental size, but also for the extravagance of its crisply carved spandrels and side panels in openwork. Although in the West tables of this form are known as altar tables, the Chinese term qiaotouan only refers to the fact that the ends are raised and that according to the Palace Museum, Beijing, tables of this scale would have stood at the centre of a main hall or against the side walls in one of the important rooms in the Imperial Palace, on which decorative objects would have been displayed.

The Palace Museum preserves a few tables of comparable size to the present piece. See two examples from the Qing Court collection: one hongmu table, decorated with pierced panels of kui dragons but lacking the openwork spandrels, formerly in the Palace of Earthly Honour (a residence of imperial concubines), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 142; the other, a Ming huanghuali prototype, with side panels exquisitely carved with similar motifs as the present table, but without the upturned ends (pingtouan) and again the openwork on the spandrels, ibid., vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 137.