102×62×48.5 cm. 40 1/8×24 3/8×19 1/8 in.

Existing canopied Chinese beds are primarily known in the following forms: the six-post bed, represented by three examples in Hung collection(Nos.33-35),which has a short railing on either side of the front opening, the bed with four corner posts and a large, circular "full-moon" opening at the front, and the corridor bed with a separate antechamber on one side, the most famous full-scale example of which is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art(Nelson-Atkins 1993,P.343).
In addition to these surviving forms, published drawings and woodblock prints, such as those used to illustrate seventeenth-century editions of the novel Chin P'ing Mei(Golden Lotus),include four-post beds(Evarts 1993b,p.29,figs.m62b and m18b).In the absence of concrete examples available for examination, however, the existence of such beds cannot yet be determined. One bed often mentioned as being a four-post bed, formerly in the collections of Robert and William Drummond of Peking(G.Ecke 1944,no.25,pl.36)and Arthur M.Sackler of New York(65.1.22)(Handler 1992c,p.11,fig.9),has filled mortises demonstrating that it was modified from a six-post bed.
This six-post bed, with its flat hoof foot and end-less-wan lattice design on the back and sides, is almost identical to one in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (J. G. Lee 1963, p.57, no.1), on the Hung bed, however, the front railings have centered cruciform patterns. As on the Philadelphia bed, each face of the lattice on this example is concave and each join is mitered and mortise and tenoned with exposed tenons. Bamboo pegging, recognizable because of its distinctive end grain, has been used on the Hung bed either to strengthen or repair joins on the wan lattice design. The canopy frieze is divided into three panels pierced with double oblongs on the long sides, the Philadelphia bed has three panels, each with a single pierced oblong, on the long sides.
A similar swastika-shaped wan lattice can be seen on a miniature canopied bed, now in the Shanghai Museum, from the tomb of P'an Yun-cheng (d.1589)(Ellsworth 1971,p.26,drawing 4).In the Chinese context the swastika, a Buddhist emblem in which good fortune was embodied, became synonymous with the character wan, meaning an infinitely great number. With its associations of eternal plenitude, the wan was considered an auspicious symbol whenever abundance was desired, especially in the matter of children. Consequently, although the wan is found in numerous decorative contexts, both secular and religious, it is not surprising to find this design decorating a bed.
—摘自《洪氏所藏木器百圖》

Price estimate:
HKD: 4,000,000-4,800,000
USD: 514,100-617,000

Auction Result:
HKD: --