A LARGE RARE MARBLE, HUANGHUALI AND TIELIMU STANDING SCREEN, ZUOPINGFENG

Details

A LARGE RARE MARBLE, HUANGHUALI AND TIELIMU STANDING SCREEN, ZUOPINGFENG
17TH CENTURY

The rectangular dali marble panel with grey-brown swirls, silhouetted on the white ground, suggestive of a craggy mountain range with misty clouds, the slab set within an inner frame conforming to the uneven surface of the stone and carved in double-face openwork depicting chi dragons amid scrolls, enclosed by an outer frame, the entire frame removable from the stand formed by two thick tielimu shoe feet, from which rise vertical posts supported by openwork standing spandrels joined by two stretchers holding openwork panels of chi dragons, the curvilinear apron carved with square meander and a pair of fierce confronted dragons flanking a ruyi cloudhead, the dark wood of the feet forming a striking contrast with the golden-reddish huanghuali of the frame and stand
84 5/8in. (215cm.) high, 71¼in. (181cm.) wide, 41 3/8in. (105cm.) deep

Literature

Sarah Handler, "The Chinese Screen: Movable Walls to Divide, Enhance and Beautify", JCCFS, Summer 1993, pp. 4-31 and front cover
Wang Shixiang, "Jianyue Minglian" ("The Beauty of Ming Furniture"), GWY, May 1993, no. 122, p. 11
Wang Shixiang, "The Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture in California", JCCFS, Autumn 1993, p. 55, no. 12
Curtis Evarts, "Ornamental Stone Panels and Chinese Furniture", JCCFS, Spring 1994, p. 15, fig. 12
Wang et al., Masterpieces from the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture, p. 154, no. 72

Lot Essay

It is indisputable that the wood frame was specifically made for the marble slab since the uneven contours of the marble fit snugly into the conforming frame

The only other large screen with removable central panel appears to be the one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which has a painting on glass of a woman in place of the marble panel of the present example, illustrated by Wang Shixiang in Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture, vol. II, p. 165, E2. It is very rare to find a large screen with a central stone panel. A smaller related example, presumably lacking its dali panel, included in the exhibition, Beyond the Screen, is illustrated by Nancy Berliner in the Catalogue, no. 1

Such large standing screens were placed inside the entrance of buildings to dispell draughts and to ward off negative cosmic energies. In addition, they were placed behind the seat of important people, to indicate high status. For a pictorial example depicting an important personage in front of a screen, see the painting by Du Jin included in the exhibition, Splendors of Imperial China, Fong and Watt, Possessing the Past, p. 367, pl. 183