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Lot Essay
Reputedly from the Imperial Palace, Beijing and once owned by Yamanaka & Co., New York, the field of this daybed cover is composed of a series of clearly defined lotus and peony flowers arranged symmetrically on a fine meandering trailing leaf stem with large yellow leaves set against a deep blue ground. The inner border is a T-pattern and the outer primary border a Chinese Buddhist fret design that reverses at the centre of both side and end borders.
The meaning of decorative elements is often highlighted through the marriage of motifs. In Chinese art such pairings included the dragon and the pearl, the phoenix and the peony or the bat and the peach. Flower-scroll patterns, first of lotus and later of peony motifs, evolved in China as a development of the Central Asian-derived acanthus and half-palmette scrolls (Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, 1984, p.64). In the 7th and 8th centuries, the peony proved extremely fashionable amongst Tang society, so much so, that due to their high prices, farmers abandoned their habitual crops and turned to cultivating the flower, finding it yielded far greater profits. Lotus palmettes were typically depicted on early ceramics with pointed tips to their petals however their leaves appeared unrelated and derived from the Greek tradition of scroll patterns.
Later versions of the same foliate drawing can be found on 'The Goloubew' carpet (The Marie Theresa, L. Virata Collection of Asian Art, Christie's New York, 16 March 2017, lot 637) and 'The Bad Homburg' carpet, (M. Franses and H. König, op. cit., London 2005, pl.26) both of which date from the second quarter of the 18th century. Two later, related carpets are illustrated with M. Tabibnia and T. Marchesi, ed., Intrecci Cinesi, Antica Arte tessile XV-XIX secolo, Milan, 2011, pl.10 and 11. On the later versions of these leaf and peony forms, the leaf stems are thicker and less well defined which creates a more uniform and one-dimensional plane.
The meaning of decorative elements is often highlighted through the marriage of motifs. In Chinese art such pairings included the dragon and the pearl, the phoenix and the peony or the bat and the peach. Flower-scroll patterns, first of lotus and later of peony motifs, evolved in China as a development of the Central Asian-derived acanthus and half-palmette scrolls (Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, 1984, p.64). In the 7th and 8th centuries, the peony proved extremely fashionable amongst Tang society, so much so, that due to their high prices, farmers abandoned their habitual crops and turned to cultivating the flower, finding it yielded far greater profits. Lotus palmettes were typically depicted on early ceramics with pointed tips to their petals however their leaves appeared unrelated and derived from the Greek tradition of scroll patterns.
Later versions of the same foliate drawing can be found on 'The Goloubew' carpet (The Marie Theresa, L. Virata Collection of Asian Art, Christie's New York, 16 March 2017, lot 637) and 'The Bad Homburg' carpet, (M. Franses and H. König, op. cit., London 2005, pl.26) both of which date from the second quarter of the 18th century. Two later, related carpets are illustrated with M. Tabibnia and T. Marchesi, ed., Intrecci Cinesi, Antica Arte tessile XV-XIX secolo, Milan, 2011, pl.10 and 11. On the later versions of these leaf and peony forms, the leaf stems are thicker and less well defined which creates a more uniform and one-dimensional plane.