PROPERTY FROM THE RICHARD MILHENDER COLLECTION An rare and early Chinese well-figured Huanghuali and Huali Demi-lune Triple-top Card or games TableCirca 1730-1740 The edges of the three-leaf top with half-round molding, and the double-gate back legs with integral wood hinges to support the flaps, the top flap plain and the second baize-lined, the solid apron delicately carved in low relief with a beaded edge terminating in ruyi lappets above the rounded slightly tapering legs ending in pad feet with mythical fanged dragon-heads with wavy manes. 29 3/4in (75.6cm) high; 33 1/4in (84.5cm) wide; 33in (83.8cm) diam 十八世紀 黃花梨與花梨半月牌桌 Provenance: Odile Cavendish, London, July 1980 The Richard Milhender Collection, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980-present Published: Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade: Paintings, Furnishings and Exotic Curiosities , Antique Collector's Club, Suffolk, UK, 1991, p. 236, Color Plate 87 The Magazine Antiques , February 1992, in an article by Carl L. Crossman, 'China Trade Furniture', p. 337, Pl. XI Exhibited: Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, (now the Peabody Essex Museum), 'Chinese Export Art: Highlights of a Private Collection', 1986-1988 出處： 倫敦 Odile Cavendish，1980 年七月 麻州波士頓 Richard Milhender 藏，1980 年至今 出版記錄： Carl L. Crossman, 《中國貿易與裝飾藝術：繪畫、傢俱、異國珍奇》，骨董藏家俱樂部，英國薩福克郡，1991 年，第 236 頁，彩版 87 The Magazine Antiques 雜志，1992 年二月，Carl L. Crossman 文《中國外銷家俱》第 337 頁，圖 XI 展出記錄： 麻州塞勒姆，皮博迪博物館《中國外銷藝術：私人收藏精粹》，1986-1988 See , London, 9 November 2017, lot 120 for a pair of ornate Huanghuali demi-lune triple-top Georgian-style gaming tables, made from a similar-figured wood but with foliate scrolls carved to the frieze (apron). The mythical-beast-heads carved to the pad feet of the London pair are also remarkably similar to the dragon-heads on the Milhender example. The Milhender table is an exceptional example of Chinese-Western cultural exchange, having been especiallymissioned according to a western design, almost certainly English, but with a Chinese craftsmen's interpretation of certain elements, like the wonderful dragon-head masks on the pad feet and the restrained ruyi (immortality lingzhi fungus) apron above each leg. In Carl L. Crossman's, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade , Woodbridge, 1991, where this table is illustrated (p. 236, pl. 87), it is described as an Oriental hardwood of stylish and very rare form. The author mentions a virtually identical table at Saltram House, Devon, UK, though adding, that the frieze is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and it lacks the carving on the pad feet. In his later article, 'China Trade Furniture', in the The Magazine Antiques , February 1992, p. 337, he notes that the pad feet of this demi-lune table are carved with virtually the same dragon masks that appear on a chair, formerly in the Milhender Collection, plate X. pare with a relate