Cabinet

Original Language TitleShugui

CultureChinese

Dateearly-mid-16th century

MediumHuanghuali wood with brass lockplates and door pulls

DimensionsOverall: 73 1/2 × 36 5/8 × 20 1/2 inches (186.69 × 93.03 × 52.07 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund

Object number82-32/2

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionOne of a pair of huanghuali cupboards, variously called sloping stile, wood-pin hinge, or round-cornered cabinets, with single board doors contained within multiple molded frames and a double cushion molded stile with a central bead. The typical mitred, mortise and tenon frame top has a softwood recessed floating panel and a softwood, probably jumu, rear rail. The outside edge of the frame is also double cushion molded without the central bead but with a square shoulder above and below. This design is repeated in the horizontal rail beneath the doors and beneath the side boards. The distinctive mitred and half-lapped aprons have a raised bead and terminate in a half-volute shape. The doors, central stile, cupboard stiles and drawer unites are numbers I & II. Early 17th century.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977–1987, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, October 14 – December 6, 1987.

Gallery Label

What do you think these cabinets were used for? The interiors are fitted with two shelves, the lower carrying two drawers. Many scholars believe that they were for storing books, paintings, or antiques. Their proportions, fine craftsmanship, and superb huanghuali wood would certainly have been appropriate for a scholar’s study. An interesting feature is the door pivots. Although they are visible at the lower corners of the doors, they are cleverly concealed at the top.

Provenance

James Freeman;

Purchased from James Freeman through George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1982.

Published References

Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture (Peking: H. Vetch, 1944), pl. 113, no. 92 (repro.).

Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), 80, no. 31 (repro.).

Archives of Asian Art, vol. XXVII (New York: Asian Society, 1984), 119, fig. 26 (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 180, no. 98 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 343 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 360 (repro.).

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