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Nicholas Grindley LLC, 1 Expo Drive, Hong Kong Wan Chai, Hong Kong (2026)

13/05/2022

May’s ‘Object of the Month’ is this small flat huanghuali document box, Qing dynasty, 18th century.
A small flat huanghuali document box and cover with a flat moulded lip to the lower edge of the top and the upper edge of the lower section with inlaid baitong rectangular lock plate formed to continue with the moulded edge, with a cloud shaped hasp with a pin hinge, both retained by split pins. The mitred, dovetailed corners are reinforced with inlaid baitong mounts with triangular bottom edges over the tielimu base tongue and grooved into the interior edge of the vertical boards. The beautifully figured single board top is tongue and grooved and lapped into the vertical boards and is inlaid at each corner with a ruyi shaped mount, the square hinges to the back retained by split pins.
Qing dynasty, 18th century.

height: 5.5 cm / 2 3/16 in
width: 31.2 cm / 12 5/16 in
depth: 15.9 cm / 6 1/4 in

Provenance:
Private collection, Chicago

We would like to remind you that if you visit the BADA website, you will find listings of some of our other current stock. We would also like to remind you that we are continuing to accept consignments if you are thinking about selling or upgrading your collection.

15/03/2022

March’s ‘Object of the Month’ is this natural root brushpot, Qing dynasty, probably 18th century, from an old French collection.
After a two year absence, Nick will be back in New York from 18 March to 10 April. Although we are not participating in Asia Week New York this year, Nick can be contacted on +1 917 945 9293 during his stay.
A natural root brushpot with natural gnarled surface with many knots and indents, the top edge softly rounded the base, cut from the solid, recessed within the natural foot.
Qing dynasty, probably 18th century or earlier.

maximum width 15.2 cm / 6 in
maximum height 13.4 cm / 5 1/4 in

Provenance:
Old French collection.

02/02/2022

This month we are featuring this huanghuali cabinet on stand of unusual configuration.
Early Qing dynasty, circa 1700, probably made for export from China to Japan.

height 117 cm / 46 1/8 in, width 68 cm / 26 3/4 in, depth 51.2 cm / 20 1/4 in

The two-door cabinet with typical mitred, mortice and tenon frame door with single board flush floating panel with two transverse stretchers enclosing an arrangement of ten drawers each with huanghuali drawer linings with hidden dovetail joints. The drawers are arranged, in descending order, of one long drawer, three short drawers, two, wider, deeper drawers, above a central grouping of two short, shallow drawers flanked by two deeper drawers, each with large huangtong lock plates. Each drawer mounted with a simple ring handle with circular back-plate retained by a split pin. The sides, top and back panels constructed of multiple flush, unframed boards with surface mounted huangtong corner brackets of cloud shape, with five similarly shaped hinges to each door that wrap around the sides, repeated as strengthening straps between the sides and back panels. The front with an eccentrically shaped lock plate, and simple spring lock, the sides with simple bail handles with chrysanthemum back and striking plates.

The cabinet is raised on a stand constructed as one would a stool but with a raised lip to the outer edge of the frame with a deep waist with an integral drawer with a huangtong lock plate. The stand is of typical construction with a mitred, mortice and tenon frame top with exposed dovetails in the short rails, with a moulded edge with a square shoulder below, a recessed waist and plain apron, double lock mortice and tenoned into the legs, with a slightly recessed hump-back stretcher tenoned into the inside edge of the legs that terminate in horsehoof feet.

The arrangement of the hinges, is unlike that of cabinets constructed for domestic use in China at this time and is much more reminiscent of cabinets made in Japan, especially those for Western consumption.

07/10/2021

This huanghuali sedan chair box, Late Ming – early Qing dynasty, 17th century, will be on view at the Fine Art Asia Fair in Hong Kong which opens tomorrow.

We are pleased to announce that although we will not physically attend the annual fair this year, we are proud to share a part of Andy Hei Ltd’s D2 stand. The fair runs 8-11 October 2021 and held at the Hong Kong Convention Centre as normal.
Further details can be found on the Fine Art Asia website or please contact either Nick or Rebecca for further information or if you would like to receive tickets.
A huanghuali document box of truncated T-shape usually described as a sedan chair box. The rectangular top panel is butt jointed to the mitred and hidden dovetail frame that forms the cover with two transverse stretchers beneath. The lower section is similarly constructed with a tielimu base board tongue and grooved into the inside edge. The interior has a removeable tielimu tray with two hinged compartments. The circular inlaid baitong lock-plate with a cloud shaped-hasp retained by split pins and finished with a raised moulding, reflecting the moulding on the upper edge of the base and the lower edge of the cover. A small section of the baitong moulding has been replaced. The top face has inlaid cloud shaped corner pieces and inlaid straps to re-enforce the corners. Careful use of a single board to make the upper and lower faces of the front of this box is an unusual and attractive feature.
Late Ming – early Qing dynasty, 17th century.

height 14 cm / 5 1/2 in
width 76.2 cm / 30 in
depth 17.8 cm / 7 in

Provenance:
Nicholas Grindley, London (0794-23)
Ian and Susan Wilson collection, San Francisco
On loan to the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln (2003 – 2018)

For a similar “sedan chair document box’ and a discussion of its use see Robert Jacobsen Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999, no. 74.

02/08/2021

August’s ‘Object of the Month’ is this wool pile on cotton foundation rug from Ningxia, Western China, first half of the 19th century.

This rug is being featured in Asia Week New York’s online summer show, ‘Shades of Blue’ which showcases one work of art from each of the participating 29 galleries and 6 auction houses. The exhibition runs from now until August 15 and can be viewed via the Asia Week New York website.

A Ningxia rug, wool pile on a cotton foundation with a field design of stylised dragon roundels with a central roundel of four confronted dragons and three, equally spaced, individual dragon roundels and four corner single dragon spandrels within a double blue line border and a lattice type wan design within a single line border and a blue edge.

Ningxia, Western China, first half of the 19th century.

7 ft 1/4 in x 4ft 4 1/4 in (214 x 133 cm)

Provenance:
Sandra Whitman, San Francisco.
Ian and Susan Wilson, San Francisco.
On loan to the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln (2003 -2018)

15/07/2021

July’s ‘Object of the Month’ is an earthenware roof tile, re-purposed as an inkstone, in the form of a peach, in a shaped hongmu box. Inkstone – Western Han dynasty (206 BC- 9 AD); Box – Qing dynasty, Daoguang period (1821-1850).

A Han-dynasty earthenware roof-tile end refashioned as an archaistic inkstone with specially fitted, carved wood peach-shaped box. At one point in its history, the tile end was damaged and later imaginatively recreated as an inkstone in the outline of an auspicious peach and carved on the slightly sunken grinding side with a stem and leaves to one side and finished with black lacquer; the tile end moulded with the original auspicious four-character inscription read as changle weiyang(felicity for eternity). The accompanying hongmu box has a lipped lower section and flat base and the cover is carved with a peach stem and leaves to complement the box shape representing the fruit.
A complete Han-dynasty tile end from the Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1994.605.99) is moulded with the same four-character inscription. The museum’s website entry for this item remarks that this inscription was a common auspicious saying during the Western Han dynasty and that changle and weyang, the moulded characters, were also names of royal palaces in the Han period.

The conversion of an earthenware roof-tile end to an inkstone rarely results with the success that has been achieved here. Two Western Han pottery tiles converted for use as inkstones—without the grinding surface carved into a new design—were sold at Christie’s, New York, Important Chinese Art from the Fujita Museum, 15 March 2017, lot 519 (US$112,500).

22/06/2021

June’s ‘Object of the Month’ is this fan, mounted as a hanging scroll, by Shen Zhizhou, Qing dynasty, 19th century.

A fan, ink and colours on mica paper depicting a garden in moonlight, mounted as a hanging scroll, inscribed and signed by the artist, with one seal. The inscription is, in part, two lines from a four-line poem by Lu You (1125-1209), one of the important poets of the Southern Song dynasty, translated as,

I love the flowering Chinese crab apple as my life,
I fret that it might be damaged by the strong sun.
I pray that the weather be cloudy
so that the blossoms may linger.
(translation by Elizabeth Hammer)

The inscription also comments that it is painted in the style of Tang Yin (1470-1523) a late Ming master from Suzhou and dedicates the painting to his elder brother Yifan. Yifan appears to be the art name of Chen Fan (1860-1913) who was a native of Heng mountain in Hunan.

Qing dynasty, Shanghai school, Shen Zhizhou, late 19th century.

width 51.4 cm / 20 1/4 in

Published:

Suzuki Kei, ‘Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Paintings’ Tokyo 1982, vol.2, E10-005

Shen Zhizhou is not listed in Zhongguo Meishujiaren Ming Cidian but his signature identifies his hometown as Wulin (present day Taizhou) in Jiangsu province.

13/05/2021

May’s ‘Object of the Month’ are these pair of huanghuali horseshoe armchairs, late Ming–early Qing dynasty 17th century.
A pair of huanghuali horseshoe armchairs with five-part pressure-pin overlapping scarf joints supported on circular-section rear posts that continue through the seat frame to form the back legs. The front legs are of similar construction, circular in section above and beneath the seat rail with a square shoulder to support the seat frame, and are tenoned into the underside of the arm with small spandrels beneath the out-curving ‘handles’. The S-curved splat with a central roundel flanked by scrolling brackets with raised beaded edges. There are S-shaped tapering braces between the arm and the side rails of the seat frame. The seat is of typical mitred, mortice and tenon construction, converted to a hard-matting seat. The tenons are exposed in the short rails of the seat frame that is finished with a plain cushion moulding with a square shoulder below. The square-section stretchers between the legs have a gently rounded outer face and are arranged in ascending heights from the foot rest. The side stretchers, back stretcher and foot rest have exposed tenons. The mitred front apron is carved with a moulded edge on the upper section and the uprights and there are traces of intertwined tendrils that have subsequently been removed from the centre. The mitred side aprons are finished with an incised line reflecting the raised bead on the front aprons. The rear apron is constructed from one piece with short shaped ears, as is the apron beneath the foot rail.
Late Ming–early Qing dynasty, 17th century.

height 99.1 cm / 39 in
width 66 cm / 26 in
depth 71.2 cm / 28 in

Provenance:
Ed Hardy, San Francisco
Ian and Susan Wilson Collection, San Francisco
On loan to the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln, 2003–2018

07/04/2021

April’s ‘Object of the Month’ is this hanging scroll by Qian Fengming (Meisheng; act. 1850s–70s) ‘Flowers, Finger Citrons and Narcissus Bulbs’. Qing dynasty, 1870

A square intaglio seal of the artist haihe 海鶴 (Ocean crane). Inscribed by Zhang Xiong (1803–1886) ‘on a summer’s day in the renwu year [1880] by an old man of 80, Zixiang, Zhang Xiong’ 壬午夏日八十老人子祥張熊題, followed by a square intaglio seal of Zhang Xiong, reading ‘Zhang Xiong si yin’ 張熊私印), and inscription reading錢梅生老友遺跡 ‘Left-over brushtraces by my old friend Qian Meisheng.’

height 144.7 cm / 57 in
width 38.8 cm / 15 1/4 in

Qian Fengming, whose style name was Meisheng 梅生 and sobriquet was Haihe waishi 海鶴外史, came from Taicang in Jiangsu and belonged to the first generation of Shanghai school painters active in the city during the 1850s through the 1870s, a generation that also included Wang Li 王禮, Hu Yuan 胡遠and Zhang Xiong, the inscriber here. According to Haishang molin 海上墨林, Qian started out as a portraitist, studying with his uncle, Li Ziqing 李子卿. Later, however, he abandoned portraiture in favour of flower-and-bird painting in the tradition of the eighteenth-century painter, Hua Yan 華喦. Second-generation Shanghai school artists such as Ren Yi 任頤 and Zhu Cheng 朱偁drew partly upon Qian Fengming’s style of flower-and-bird painting to form their own styles. Collaborative works among Qian and these younger artists survive.

This hanging scroll is a fine example of Qian’s work from the 1870s, with his spirited brushwork and vivid sense of colour on view. It depicts a common display in wealthy Shanghai residences of the time: combinations of crackle-glaze, modern-form flower vases, displayed on different levels. The artist has combined a range of autumnal flowers, with Buddha’s hand citrons and narcissus bulbs completing the scene. The auspicious meanings carried by particular combinations of flowers and/or vegetables, made such still lifes widely popular in the city.

18/03/2021

Due to the fantastic response in the last few days, the organisers of Asia Week New York have decided to extend their virtual online exhibition until 27 March. For further details for events and to access all of the galleries - please visit or the Asia Week New York website.

Included in the items we have chosen, is this hongmu square tea table or stand, late Qing dynasty, circa 1870. You can view our other objects on our website under Asia Week New York Exhibition

A hongmu square tea table or stand with a typical mitred, mortice and tenon frame with a slightly recessed panel with a raised bead to the inside edge of the frame. The outside edge of the frame curving down to a raised bead above the recessed waist. The apron, carved in high relief with a central, slightly flattened ruyi head flanked by scrolling tendrils is mitred at each corner and slightly proud of the undecorated square leg. Tenoned into the inside of each leg is a stretcher carved to simulate two highly stylised dragons, back-to-back, with a carved lingzhifungus between the horizontal member of the stretcher and the underside of the apron. Joining the legs just above the foot are four stretchers joined by a ‘cracked ice’ design lattice.
Late Qing dynasty, circa 1870.

height 76 cm / 30 in
width 50 cm / 19 3/4 in
depth 50 cm / 19 3/4 in

16/02/2021

February’s ‘Object of the Month’, is this bamboo folding frame, probably for a mosquito net, Qing dynasty, probably 18th or early 19th century.

This will feature in our forthcoming virtual exhibition hosted by Asia Week New York running from 11-20 March 2021.

During 2020 and now into 2021, we have continued to work privately from home, but participating in Asia Week New York’s virtual exhibition gives us an opportunity to showcase some of the quirkier objects we have in our inventory, as well as selecting a few classic pieces of Chinese Furniture.

Further details for the event, which will include lectures, videos, webinars and virtual tours of participant galleries, can be found on the Asia Week New York website. We have highlighted our chosen pieces on our own website under a section entitled Asia Week New York Exhibition.

We would like to remind you if you visit the BADA website, you will find listings of some of our other current stock.

A bamboo folding frame, probably for a mosquito net, each circular section stay hinged at right angles to the next with metal mounts, probably huangdong, the base of which is affixed to a semi-circular metal bracket, the nine stays creating a semi-circular arc over which the mosquito net would be placed. There is a number of small repairs to the hinge joints. When disassembled the frame folds flat.
Qing dynasty, probably 18th or early 19th century.

height (open) 102.87 cm / 40 1/2 in
length (open) 214.63 cm / 84 1/2 in
depth (open) 110.49 cm / 43 1/2 in

22/01/2021

January’s ‘Object of the Month’, are these pair of hongmu square stools, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century.

We would like to remind you if you visit the BADA website, you will find listings of some of our other current stock. We would also like to remind you that we accept consignments if you are thinking about selling or upgrading your collection.

Please contact either Nick or Rebecca for further information.

[email protected]
[email protected]

A pair of hongmu square stools, each with a typical mitred, mortice and tenon frame with hidden tenons at the corner joints. Drilled for a soft seat construction these stools have been subsequently converted to hard seat with a new board and transverse stretcher with the matting applied to the top surface. The square section leg with a raised bead to the inside is mitred, mortice and tenoned into the seat frame and terminates in a well-drawn horsehoof foot. Straight stretchers are mitred and tenoned into the inside face of the legs at the same height and are also finished with a raised bead creating a complete frame to the “double cash” motif to each side.
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century.

height 47 cm / 18 1/2 in
width 55.6 cm / 21 7/8 in
depth 55.6 cm / 21 7/8 in

Provenance:
Nicholas Grindley Inc., New York, 1985
Private collection, New York and Florida, 1985 - 2019

Nicholas Grindley LLC