Live Auction 2196Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections
Lot 226ANOTHER PROPERTY

AN IMPORTANT AND RARE IMPERIAL GUANGZHOU TRIBUTE EMBELLISHED IVORY AND TORTOISESHELL FAN

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Closed15 September 2009

Price Realised

USD 194,500

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AN IMPORTANT AND RARE IMPERIAL GUANGZHOU TRIBUTE EMBELLISHED IVORY AND TORTOISESHELL FAN
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
Made of very thin, finely woven ivory caning mounted in a tortoiseshell frame, with a central bamboo strip on each side secured at the top by a ruyi-shaped gilt-metal mount inlaid with kingfisher feather, the bamboo strip on the front embellished with mother-of-pearl, amber, gilt-metal and painted ivory appliques secured on the reverse by small feather-embellished florets above a mother-of-pearl plaque, the front applied at the bottom with delicately painted ivory appliques depicting a grouping of a pine tree, lingzhi, aster, lotus and orchids below two grey bats and a crane in flight above, the painted enamel handle decorated in blue grisaille with composite foliate scroll between ivory mounts, the mount at the end pierced for a silk tassel
19 5/8 in. (30 cm.) long

Old Mid-Atlantic private collection.

Specialist note

This exceptional fan belongs to an elite group of luxury wares produced in the 18th century in Guangzhou, as tribute for the Court. Like the present example, they typically feature bird and flower scenes rendered in delicate ivory appliques superimposed on intricately woven ivory caning, all mounted in a tortoiseshell frame and attached to a painted enamel handle. Several comparable fans are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and are illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; Zhumu yajiaoqi, vol. 11, Shanghai, 1996, p. 95, no. 113. (Fig. 1); The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Beijing, 2002, pp. 181-2, nos. 140-1; Gugong zhenbao, Beijing, 2004, p. 159; and Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987, p. 71, no. 7. See, also, the fan of similar type included in the exhibition Chinese Ivories from the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 28 July - 14 October 1990, p. 351, no. 184.