KANGXI

Details

A twelve-fold coromandel lacquer screen
Kangxi
Carved through the dark brown lacquer ground and painted in a multitude of colours, the front depicting a large celebration in a lavish setting with a central reception hall alive with dancers and musicians before a magistrate, set in a garden with tiled pavilions, columned terraces and walkways showing various groups of figures playing go or the qin, strolling or chatting, to the right several equestrian figures crossing a bridge, the boundaries delineated by a wall with several horses, grooms and musicians waiting outside, all within a border of cranes among cloud scrolls below a band of the 'Hundred Antiquities' above, a row of mythical beasts at the base and dragons among clouds at either end, the reverse with a long archaic inscription between a smaller regular script, within a border of flower scrolls below mountain and river landscapes above and a wide variety of plants below, age cracks, some restorations and losses
each panel 279 cm. high, 58.5 cm. wide

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20% (VAT inclusive) for this lot.

Further details

END OF SALE

Lot Essay

This highly decorative screen is of a type favoured among the intellectual elite in Qing Dynasty China and was probably a 60th birthday screen. The large characters on the reverse refer to the same character Shou (longevity), repeated in different decorative script types.
The term 'coromandel' originated from the coromandel coast of India and was used to describe items originating from the 'Indies' which included pieces from India, China and Japan. Large quantities of these folding screens were exported to Europe in the 17th and 18th Century, but at the same time were fashioned to grace the homes of Chinese high officials.

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