IMPORTANTE ET TRÈS RARE SELLETTE IMPÉRIALE EN ZITAN ET ÉMAUX CLOISONNÉS ET INCRUSTATIONS EN FILS D'ARGENT

Époque Qianlong (1736-1795)

Footnotes

Provenance:
Formerly in a French private collection.

清乾隆 御製紫檀錯銀絲嵌掐絲琺瑯扇形桌

來源
法國私人舊藏

This wonderful small table is highly unusual with its gently rounded shape and tall, elegant legs, its luxurious decoration of vibrantly coloured cloisonné enamel plaques and delicate silver-wire inlays tracing the borders of the top and sides. It is utterly discreet yet blatantly luxurious and it seems that no expense was spared to decorate this small table. The tabletop, apron and legs are made of solid zitan wood, which over time has turned a dark, almost black colour, the surface cool and smooth to the touch. The dark wood is in stark contrast with the colorful cloisonné enamel plaque set into the tabletop and the small, vibrantly coloured cloisonné enamel details in the shape of bats and stylized dragons that are fitted around the corners and aprons. Simple but refined thin silver-wire inlaid scrolls and motifs enhance the edges of the sides and top and repeat and emphasize the slightly raised parts of the carved design.

The table is a work of art, sturdy and functional yet playful and decorative. It demonstrates that during the Qing dynasty, furniture used in the halls and chambers of the elite had both utilitarian as well as decorative functions. Made of solid zitan, it captures the double role of furniture of the Qing dynasty: to serve both utilitarian and decorative functions. It is entirely made of zitan, the most precious and highly esteemed and prized timber. Finely grained and extremely dense, zitan was ideal for detailed, intricately carved designs. When polished the purplish-black wood's lustrous surface displays a silky, jade-like surface and shimmering texture known as baojiangliang as can be seen on this small table. Under the Qianlong emperor zitan became the material of choice favoured by the Qing court when it came to representative furniture. Grown in the southern provinces of Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, zitan was known for its durability and strength. By the early Qing dynasty, excessive lumbering activities had rendered zitan a rare and highly sought after expensive commodity. The scarcity was compounded by the natural growth pattern of these trees, which are slow growing and require centuries to fully mature into usable material. The use of zitan was scrupulously monitored and carefully restricted. As a precious commodity, its use was almost exclusively reserved for the Qing court. Stores of zitan were kept in the Imperial Storehouse for use by artisans working in the Palace Workshops and only small quantities were allowed outside the Palace. Within the Palace compound, highly skilled furniture makers and wood carvers were employed to work in the wood-working workshops (muzuo) that were attached to the Imperial workshops (zaobanchu). Here, they produced furniture pieces of the highest quality. Surviving examples in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing illustrate the range and ingenuity of zitan furniture made by these artisans for furnishing the numerous private and public halls of the various Imperial palaces. Extant zitan pieces in the former Qing court collection were made in two very different styles. The first follows the rather plain and refined style of the Ming dynasty with little carved decorations in favour of simple lines and smooth surfaces and continuous lines highlighting the beauty of the natural texture and sheen of the wood. The second style that evolved under the influence of Western motifs, designs and techniques was far more elaborate with ingenious forms and luxuriously carved surfaces covered with continuous designs of archaistic and/or floral scrollwork. Some rare pieces of zitan furniture such as this small table were further enhanced with applications and inlays of precious materials such as jade, ivory, silver and cloisonné enamels. Compare, for instance, a zitan stool in the Palace Museum collection, decorated with champlevé enamel fittings applied to the corners, the strapwork spandrels and legs, and another zitan stool similarly decorated with small cloisonné enamels fittings as well as bat-shaped jade inlays, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, nos. 66 and 72.

Zitan furniture decorated with fine silver wire inlays is even rarer and appears mostly on smaller pieces such as boxes, stands or frames such as the silver-inlaid keyfret borders on an embellished zitan tiered box and cover sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 28 April 1996, lot 29, or on a small inscribed cloisonné enamel, gilt-bronze and zitan screen surmounted by the zitan pediment similarly inlaid with a silver keyfret pattern and silver-inlaid borders, also sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 28 April 1996, lot 16. Among the few larger pieces of furniture with silver-inlaid designs is a small compound cabinet formerly in the Qing court collection with doors decorated with an overall pattern of scattered ice-crackle and plum blossoms finely inlaid with thin silver wire against the rich brown wood, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, no. 207.

The technique of fine silver wires set into the dark wood and creates a subtle, yet striking contrast to the dark wood as can be seen on the present lot. The simple yet refined design of the table with its gently round shape and long, elegant legs contrast with the vibrantly coloured cloisonné enamel bats and stylized dragons that are applied to the aprons and feet of this small table and the colourful cloisonné enamel plaque set into the tabletop. Small cloisonné enamel fittings in the form of bats also appear on the legs and waist of a pair of similarly refined zitan stools illustrated by Michel Beurdeley in Chinese Furniture, New York, 1979, pp. ?. The same vibrant blue and pale pink of the champlevé enamel elements can be found on a rare pair of cloisonné and champlevé enamel stools sold in Sotheby's London, 6th November 2019, lot 316. A pair of silver wire-inlaid zitan and cloisonné 'palace lanterns' is illustrated in Selected Masterpieces of Zitan Furniture formerly in the Qing Imperial Collection, Beijing, 2011, p. 61. The authors note that silver wire inlay technique is unique to workshops in Weifang, Shandong, and suggest that such high-quality pieces were probably commissioned by the imperial workshops.

While there are several round or half-round tables in the Palace Museum collections, this wonderfully quirky, elegant small table appears to be unique as no other example of this rounded shape and design is recorded. All four sides of the table are elaborately carved and decorated, suggesting that it was meant to be viewed from all four sides. A black and white image of the empress dowager Cixi (1835-1908) depicts her left arm resting on what appears to be a table of the same size, height and rounded shape. The dowager empress Cixi had a keen interest in luxury as her sumptuously furnished residence within the palace compound illustrates. The Palace of Gathered Elegance (Chuxiugong) is one of Six Western Palaces (Xi liugong) at the heart of Forbidden City and is situated to the east of the Palace of Universal Happiness (Xianfugong) and just north of the Palace of Earthly Honor (Yikungong). First set up in 1420 it was originally named the Palace of Longevity and Prosperity (Shouchanggong) before it was renamed Chuxiugong in 1535. It served as the residence of the imperial wives and concubines of the Ming and subsequent Qing emperors. In 1884, on occasion of Cixi's fiftieth birthday, the Chuxiugong main hall and adjacent rooms were renovated and lavishly furnished to their present state. Images show that at least two pairs of zitan furniture with cloisonné enamel plaques were included: a pair of prominently displayed armchairs with cloisonné enamel plaques to the back splats, and a pair of barrel-shaped stools similarly decorated with cloisonné enamel plaques, see Wan Yi, Daily Life in the Forbidden City: The Qing Dynasty 1644-1912, Beijing, 1989, pp. 156-157, figs. 214 and 215. It is entirely possible that this exquisite small zitan table with its lavish decoration may have been in one of the rooms of the Chuxiugong.