An important pair of Hongmu Four-Part Compound Hat-chests on Cabinets, dingxiang'gui

17th/18th century

17th/18th century
Each cabinet of massive rectangular form constructed from large panels beneath the hat chests made of two single panel doors, all similarly decorated in high relief with four sinuous chilong amidst a profusion of ruyi fungi issuing from meandering leafy stems, all supported by rectangular-section legs joined by shaped beaded aprons and spandrels, the hinged doors fitted with shaped lock plates and pulls, opening to reveal two shelves in each compartment. Overall 260cm (102 2/8in) high x 127cm (50in) wide x 61cm (24in) deep. (4).

十七/十八世紀 紅木浮雕螭龍靈芝紋頂箱櫃成對

Provenance: Charlotte Horstmann and Gerald Godfrey Ltd., Hong Kong
A British private collection, acquired from the above on 21 July 1998

來源：香港古董商Charlotte Horstmann and Gerald Godfrey Ltd.
英國私人收藏，於1998年7月21日購自上者

Compound cabinets combine a large square-corner cabinet with a smaller upper cabinet or 'hat cupboards'. Fitted with shelves and often times with drawers, their generous size made them ideal for storing long scrolls, fabrics, garments and books. The upper cabinets, as the name suggests, would have contained hats or less frequently used items. Although the upper cabinets are of separate construction, their unfinished undersides suggest that the top-cabinets were an integral part of the design and were never meant to serve as independent pieces of furniture. On some cabinets, the top sections were so high that a ladder was needed to access them. In the 18th century novel, Story of the Stone, Granny Liu, a poor distant relative visits the wealthy Jia family compound and is astonished by the size of the furniture:

'When I first went into your Ladyship's apartment yesterday and saw those grand chests and cupboards and tables and beds, the size of everything fairly took my breath away. That great wardrobe of yours is higher and wider that one of our rooms back home. I'm not surprised you keep a ladder in the back courtyard. When I first saw it, I thought to myself, 'Now what can they need a ladder for?'...And then of course I realised: it must be for getting things out of the compartment on top of that wardrobe of yours, for you could never reach it else.' See D.Hawkes, trans., Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, London, 1974, chapter 40.

In grand houses like the Jia familiy's, cabinets such as the present lot might be used in the inner woman's apartments and in the reception rooms to which male visitors were invited. If the master of the house was an official, the wardrobes might contains Court robes and hats. The Portuguese Dominican friar Gaspar da Cruz notes the dominant positions of wardrobes in the reception rooms of a house he visited in 1556, 'Entering in the first of these houses (which is large) it has therein some huge cupboards very well wrought and carved...'; see S.Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture, Berkley, 2001, p.262.

Apart from their impressive size, the decoration of lingzhi and archaistic chilong is also exceptional. The lingzhi fungus, represents a combination of spiritual potency and the essence of Immortality, and so naturally regarded as the herb of spiritual potency, symbolising success, well-being, divine power, and longevity. The archaistic dragons or chilong reflects intellectual trends of archaism that were prevalent at the time, as the literati sought new approaches to understanding their ancient heritage which in turn led to a greater fascination for decorative designs from ancient bronzes.

Compare with a related hongmu cabinet, mid Qing dynasty, carved with motifs of dragons, bats, musical stones and double-fish, illustrated by Tian Jiaqing, Classic Chinese Furniture of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1996, pp.220-221, no.100. See also a related zitan dingxiang gui cabinet carved with ornate floral scrolls, Mid Qing dynasty, from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Imperial Furniture of Ming and Qing Dynasties: Classics of the Forbidden City, Beijing, 2008, p.24, no.17.

See a related large pair of hongmu compound cabinets, 19th century, which were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 2047.