THREE SHEETS OF IMPERIAL COLOURED WAXED PAPER

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

THREE SHEETS OF IMPERIAL COLOURED WAXED PAPER
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
Each sheet with a different coloured ground, the first on a white ground painted in gold with plum blossoms on a 'cracked-ice' ground with a seal in one corner reading Meihua yu ban jian; the second on a pink ground detailed in gold with bamboo, inscribed Qianlong nian fang Chengxin Tang zhi, 'Made in imitation of [paper of] the Chengxin Tang during the Qianlong period'; the third sheet on a pale blue speckled ground painted in shades of gold with blossoming peach branches inscribed Qianlong nian fang Chengxin Tang zhi
13 3/4 x 19 5/8 in. (35 x 50 cm.); 14 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (37 x 49.5 cm.); and 14 3/4 x 19 5/8 in. (37.5 x 50 cm.) (3)

Provenance

A Japanese private collection formed at the beginning of the 20th century

Lot Essay

A nearly identical sheet of white-ground waxed paper decorated with plum blossoms on a 'cracked-ice' bearing the same mark from the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, was included in the exhibition The Life of the Emperor Qianlong, Macao Museum of Art, Macao, 2002, Catalogue no. 65 where it is attributed to the Qianlong period and is said to have been designed by the court painter.

The reference to Chengxintang on the second and third sheets alludes to the famous Song dynasty paper workshops by that name.

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