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Arts & Culture

Antiques and Collectables

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Presents Ming Furniture – The Dr S Y Yip Collection

Sotheby’s is honoured to present the exhibition Ming Furniture – The Dr S Y Yip Collection from 14 August to 4 September at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery.  Thirty-eight sets of furniture pieces selected from the sublime Collection will be exhibited in a contemporary setting with reference to the origin of the furniture in Ming dynasty Suzhou, demonstrating how their classic design transcends time to fit well in 21st-century living space. 
 
Admired by collectors worldwide, Dr S Y Yip’s internationally acclaimed collection is the result of years of fervent acquisition of Ming furniture throughout the 1980s and 1990s.  His pieces are not only excellent and rare in their quality and range, but also endorsed by renowned scholar and collector Mr Wang Shixiang, the modern father of Ming furniture.  Even more remarkable is the refined taste of the literati imbued within the Collection, a testament to Dr Yip’s tenacious pursuit of perfection and scholarly temperament.  The great majority of the Collection came from Grace Wu Bruce, owner of her eponymous gallery and a leading Ming furniture expert and dealer.  Widely respected by collectors, scholars and museum experts, Grace’s professionalism and rigour in maintaining the highest standards underlie the fame and success of the Collection. 
 
Home to Ming furniture, the Suzhou area in the lower Yangzi river basin in China was famed for garden houses with meandering paths offering a different view at every turn.  “Borrowed views” and “framed views” where delightful vistas are incorporated through carefully positioned windows are characteristics of these elegant mansions.  This exhibition will use familiar features of Suzhou garden houses as a backdrop to the furniture display.  Meandering paths will lead visitors through a contemporary space with antique features, created in reference to the origin of the furniture in Ming dynasty Suzhou.  The new “Suzhou houses” will be predominantly white to highlight the clean lines and sculptural qualities of Ming furniture.  Three rooms, namely the Drawing Room, Study and Tea Room, will be set up to demonstrate how the classic design of Ming furniture transcends time to fit well in a contemporary living space.
                                      
In comparison to those well-established areas of Chinese art such as painting, calligraphy, ceramics, jades, bronzes, the scholarship of Chinese furniture is a relatively new field. Not only are there questions of dating, restoration and alteration, the concepts of Chinese furniture and their historical development continue to evolve. Recent discoveries of extant examples, archaeological excavations, visual and textual evidence expand existing knowledge of the subject and shed light on hitherto unknown types and forms of furniture. Moreover, these valuable materials also enable in-depth explorations of their technical construction, stylistic evolution, regional characteristics and aesthetic criteria, at the same time allowing investigations into the cultural and social aspects of furniture in the daily living of different classes of people. The inter-relationship of furniture with architecture and gardens in the living environment and their place in household interiors are new initiatives of scholarship worthy of mention.
 
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery, 5/F, One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
14 August – 4 September 2015
Monday - Friday: 10am – 6pm
Saturday - Sunday: 11am – 5pm
+852 2524 8121    
 

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