.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The current cabinet was purchased from a descendent of the family of Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822-1885) through Grant’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Chapman Grant (1850-1945) and her son, Chapman Grant (1887-1983) both of San Diego, California, from whom correspondence are held by the current owner.
Following his presidency of 1869-1877, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked on a world tour as a diplomatic envoy at the urging of the current President, Rutherford B. Hayes. During these travels he met with many notable world leaders including King Leopold II, the Meiji Emperor, Otto von Bismarck, Queen Victoria, and Pope Leo XIII. Included in the tour was a portion through Asia and visits in China where Grant met with Prince Gong and General Li Hongzhang. Given his prowess as a great military tactician following his victory as the leader of the Union Army during the American Civil War, Grant was asked to act as mediator over a dispute between China and Japan over the Ryukyu Islands. Over the course of the travels, President Grant amassed a large collection which went on to serve as the core of a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian. A portion of the collection was donated by the Grant family in 1885.
Superbly carved and of impressive size, measuring 117.5 cm. high, this magnificent cabinet far outsizes its more commonly-seen counterparts, which typically measure around 60 cm. high. The cabinet is finely carved on the front with writhing dragons amidst clouds, and carved on the sides with bats and flowers. Most unusually, the reverse is incised with floral patterns underscoring an overarching attention to detail and quality, where attention is given to areas that would have remained hidden from the viewer. The quality and the scale of the present cabinet suggests that this was made for an imperial context. A nearly identical example, measuring 129 cm. high, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection, A Treasury of Ming & Qing Palace Furniture-54, Beijing, 2007, p. 247, pl. 210, where another related example, but in zitan, illustrated, p. 245, no. 208. Cabinets of this size would have been placed on a larger kang platform, such as the embellished zitan example shown in situ by the north window of the west room in the “Palace of Gathering Excellence” (Chu Xiu Gong), illustrated in ibid., p. 298, no. 251.
Following his presidency of 1869-1877, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked on a world tour as a diplomatic envoy at the urging of the current President, Rutherford B. Hayes. During these travels he met with many notable world leaders including King Leopold II, the Meiji Emperor, Otto von Bismarck, Queen Victoria, and Pope Leo XIII. Included in the tour was a portion through Asia and visits in China where Grant met with Prince Gong and General Li Hongzhang. Given his prowess as a great military tactician following his victory as the leader of the Union Army during the American Civil War, Grant was asked to act as mediator over a dispute between China and Japan over the Ryukyu Islands. Over the course of the travels, President Grant amassed a large collection which went on to serve as the core of a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian. A portion of the collection was donated by the Grant family in 1885.
Superbly carved and of impressive size, measuring 117.5 cm. high, this magnificent cabinet far outsizes its more commonly-seen counterparts, which typically measure around 60 cm. high. The cabinet is finely carved on the front with writhing dragons amidst clouds, and carved on the sides with bats and flowers. Most unusually, the reverse is incised with floral patterns underscoring an overarching attention to detail and quality, where attention is given to areas that would have remained hidden from the viewer. The quality and the scale of the present cabinet suggests that this was made for an imperial context. A nearly identical example, measuring 129 cm. high, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection, A Treasury of Ming & Qing Palace Furniture-54, Beijing, 2007, p. 247, pl. 210, where another related example, but in zitan, illustrated, p. 245, no. 208. Cabinets of this size would have been placed on a larger kang platform, such as the embellished zitan example shown in situ by the north window of the west room in the “Palace of Gathering Excellence” (Chu Xiu Gong), illustrated in ibid., p. 298, no. 251.