A pair of Round-Cornered Huanghuali Two-door Cabinets. Each with a slightly overhanging top of typical mitered, mortise and tenon construction with a central floating panel, the back panel divided by a central stile, the front with a pair of wood pin hinged doors each secured within a molded frame above a wide horizontal panel. Height 38” Width 30.75” Depth 16” Provenance Sotheby’s New York. Mr and Mrs James Biddle, Washington D.C., acquired from Ellsworth & Goldie Ltd back in New York 1961. Footnote: Dated by Robert Ellsworth ibid. p. 263 to the 16th century, this rare type of cabinet is discussed in Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 85. A pair of tapered cabinets of similar size but lacking the panels beneath the doors is illustrated in Grace Wu Bruce, On the Kang and Between the Walls, London, 1998, no. 13. A similar pair but of larger size and with hinged doors was sold in our London rooms, 15th May 2013, lot 65.