SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

Details

A CHINESE-EXPORT REVERSE MIRROR-PAINTING
SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY
The rectangular plate depicting a young lady and a boy playing a recorder seated beside a tree and in front of a river with sampans, with a pagoda and mountains beyond, in a George III style giltwood and gilt-composition pierced rockwork frame
37 x 24½ in. (94 x 62 cm.)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Chinese mirror and glass paintings were produced during the 18th and early 19th centuries purely for export to the West, their decoration deriving in some degree from European engravings. Painted upon plates of glass, the painting was executed on the back of the glass, a technique which was known in the 18th Century as 'back-painting'. Many of the paintings were produced in Canton, a centre for painting on glass (M. Jourdain and R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, Norwich, 1967, p. 36).

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