19TH CENTURY

Details

A SET OF EIGHT PITH-PAPER PAINTINGS OF DIGNITARIES
19TH CENTURY
Each finely painted with male and female figures variously seated beside tables on elaborate trellis-pattern carpets, each figure wearing elaborate robes and headdresses accompanied by two attendants
12 1/8 x 7 5/8 in. (30.8 x 19.5 cm.), framed and glazed (8)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

See C. L. Crossmann, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, pp.200 and 201, who quotes from a visitor's account of 1844 that most pith paper paintings '...cost, for the usual class of excellence, from one to two dollars a dozen..... Or you may order a set comprising the emperor and empress, and the chief mandarins, and court ladies, in the most significant attire, and finished like miniatures, for eight dollars.' Compare the album with similar subject matter presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Dr. W. L. Hildburgh in 1934, illustrated by C. Clunas, Chinese Export Watercolours, London, 1984, colour plate 42, and p.72. An album with similar scenes sold in these Rooms, 16 November 1999, lot 272 (part); and twelve others sold in these Rooms, A View over Eaton Square, 10 November 2005, lot 657.

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