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1119
1546331

A massive zitan recessed-leg long table 'Jiaotousun Qiotouan', Qing dynasty, 19th century.

Estimate
80 000 - 100 000 SEK
7 150 - 8 940 EUR
7 260 - 9 070 USD
Hammer price
80 000 SEK
Purchasing info
For condition report contact specialist
Cecilia Nordström
Stockholm
Cecilia Nordström
Senior specialist Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, European Ceramics and Glass
+46 (0)739 40 08 02
A massive zitan recessed-leg long table 'Jiaotousun Qiotouan', Qing dynasty, 19th century.

Finely carved and composed of dark tightly grained timber, the wide thick plank top set in a frame with scrollwork on the edge, above a richly carved pierced apron with pomme granate and twirly branches with leaves, this decoration continues by the richly carved pierced panels framed by the legs of square section, that has centered bats, connected by ropes on both sides. Height 89 cm, length 194.5 cm, depth 43.5 cm.

Damages, repairs, one panel replaced on a short side.

Provenance

From the Collection Paul R. Wedendal (1924-2010), Djursholm, Stockholm. This table has been in the family since the 1970's and is now sold by the family.

To see objects from the Collecton of Paul R. Wedendal Senior, see a single owner Asian Sale that were held in these rooms at Bukowskis in 2011. See Auction H036.

Exhibitions

Compare a table in the Asian Art Museum, San Fransisco. approx. 1750-1850, zitan, from the Avery Bundage Collection, inv. no B71M2.

Compare interiors depicted in the Forbidden City, The Great Within, May Holdsworth & Caroline Courtauld. See for example the Interior of the Palace of Concentrated Beauty.

Compare the same kind of decoration of twisted ropes (then holding bi discs) on a pair of table solds Sothebys, Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, Hong Kong 8, October 2013. Lot no 3084.
Compare also at the same sale lot no 3083. A pair of carved zitan tables with recessed-leg.

Literature

Life of the Emperors and Empresses in the Forbidden City, Edited by The Palace Musum, Beijing 1983. Compare furniture of this kind of carving on page 56, 82, 83. MingQing. Gungting Jia Ju Zhen da Quan, Beijing 2006. Compare tables of this style, page 255, 258.

Orientations, December 1994. p 43-49. An article by Tian Jia Qing 'Zitan and Zitan Furniture'. Discusses the great shortage druing the Qing dynasty of the material during large scale use in construction projects, Tian, discovered recoreds in the Archives of the Imperial Workshops, which indicate that 'all the zitan found by officials through the country had to be turned over to the imperial palace... '.

More information

As discussed by Nancy Berliner, in a catalogue called Beyond the Screen, Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries, these massive tables are rare. With the social upheaval in China during the 20th Century, tables of this great size were particularly suceptible to damage. Smaller objects could easier be transported and sold.

Compare also interiors with carvings like this in the Hall of Great Supremacy.