A FINE AND RARE POLYCHROME LACQUER RECTANGULAR RECESSED-LEG TABLE, PINGTOU'AN17th century Finely decorated with designs in varying shades of brown and red incised with black outlines, the long top with incised designs of a bird hovering above a large shrub of blossoming peonies issuing from jagged rocks, all within a border enclosing shaped cartouches with further peonies alternating with diaper designs, the edge with tendrils entwined with archaistic interlocking designs, the apron, spandrels, side stretchers and legs all with designs of scrolling lotus and foliage. 141cm (55 1/2in) long x 82cm (32 2/8in) high x 44cm (17 3/8in) deep. 十七世紀 填漆花鳥紋平頭案 Provenance: Alice Boney (1901-1988), New York 來源：古董商Alice Boney（1901-1988), 紐約 Alice Boney was a renowned Chinese art dealer based in New York City. In 1924 she married Jan Kleykamp and after their honeymoon tour of European cities they returned to New York with a large ment of Tang dynasty sculptures and opened the Jan Kleykamp Gallery, the first gallery in the city to sell Chinese art. After her divorce, she made a significant name for herself in the burgeoning field of Chinese art appreciation and collecting, despitepeting in a male-dominated business with C.T. Loo and C.F. Yau. Recognised as a preeminent authority on Chinese art, Boney earned the moniker 'Doyenne of Oriental Art Dealers.' Her clients included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, Mrs. William H. Morris, and President Herbert Hoover. Boney moved to Japan in 1958, where she remained for the next sixteen years. She returned to New York in 1974 and continued to deal from her Park Avenue apartment until her death in 1988. pare with a similar polychrome lacquer and qiangjin table, mid Qing dynasty, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Gugong shoucang: ni yinggai zhidao de 200 jian caihui jiaju , Beijing, 2009, p.229, no.160. The present lot was clearly inspired by the simple yet elegant forms of classical Chinese furniture in huanghuali that best epitomise a Chinese scholar's fondness for unassuming and functional furniture. This iconic Ming design is referred to in the 'Classic of Lu Ban' ( Lu Ban Jing ), a carpentry manual dating to the early Ming dynasty, as a 'Character One Table' due to its similarity in profile to the single horizontal stroke of the Chinese character for the number one ( yi 一); see C.Clunas, Chinese Furniture , London, 1988, p.47. The present table would have been used in domestic as well as religious contexts and would most likely have been placed against a wall to display ornamental objects or support ceremonial offerings. For discussion about the importance of Chinese side tables and altar tables, see S.Handler, Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture , Berkeley, 2001, pp.224-238.