Miniature huanghuali table with marble top

Qing dynasty, 18th -19th century

Length: 8 inches, 20.3 cm
Width: 4 5/8 inches, 11.7 cm
Height: 2 3/8 inches, 7 cm

A miniature table made of huanghuali, supported on two pairs of recessed legs  located at both ends. The rectangular top is inlaid with a slab of marble and has everted flanges above a shaped, beaded apron. The frontward curving legs are supported by spandrels carved with chi dragons in openwork. The marble slab combines whitish and greyish colours, together with some linear red veins. The wood is well polished and well patinated.

This piece is a miniature version of a large qiaotouan table with recessed legs, and embodies all the characteristics of the form.  Similar small table stands with decorative stone panels are shown in the 18th-century illustrations to the novel Jin Ping Mei (‘Flower in a Golden Vase’), where they support the ‘Three Friends of Incense’ – the incense tool vase, incense burner and incense powder box.[1] Stone panels are especially suitable for incense stands as they resist scorching, and their figuration evokes images that change according to the viewer’s mood or the side from which it is viewed. A comparable 17th-century miniature qiaotouan table made of huanghuali, similarly inlaid with a marble panel on its top, is in the collection of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture. 2

Provenance:  the collection of Louise Hawley Stone (1904 – 1997), Toronto, Canada.  She was the Royal Ontario Museum’s first volunteer and was also a major donor, fundraiser, Board member and committee chair.

1 Wang, Shixiang and Evarts, C. Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, Chinese Art Foundation, Chicago and San Francisco, 1995, p. 82
2 Wang, Shixiang and Evarts, C. op. cit. no. 86, pp. 182-3

黃花梨嵌大理石面翹頭案式小几
晚明至清初 十七 – 十八世紀
長：33 公分 寬：14.7 公分 高：13公分
案面嵌大理石板，兩端嵌入渾圓小翹頭。長牙子沿邊起線，中承勾雲紋形牙頭，與兩側短牙子成 一框架，承托案面 。腿足下端展成外撇香爐腿，腿足間鑲嵌透雕螭龍紋檔板。木料包漿紅潤，與 大理石之紅灰色調相互輝映。本器為明式翹頭案迷你版，其大理石面因更為耐熱與便於清理，更 適宜用於盛放爐、瓶、盒等香具。美國加州中國古典家具博物館亦藏有一件十七世黃花梨嵌大理 石面翹頭案式小几。
來源：加拿大多倫多 Louise Hawley Stone 女士收藏; 曾為皇家安大略博物館之主要贊助者及委 員會主席。