18TH/19TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE PUDDINGSTONE AND ZITAN TABLE SCREEN
18TH/19TH CENTURY
The rectangular puddingstone panel is of soft grey-green, dark russet and ochre color, and has a satiny polish. The zitan stand is carved with ten bats amidst an overall pattern of clouds, and a bat on each side grasping in their mouths ribbon-tied double peaches above a rock rising from the lower edge. Together with a well-carved soapstone mountain, 18th/19th century, which is of irregular, somewhat triangular shape and carved in low relief on one side with a monk holding a staff seated in the foreground below clouds partially obscuring a pavilion in the distance. On the adjoining side a monk holding a fan is seated on the branch of a large tree that continues onto the third side.
11½ and 6½ in. (29.2 and 16.5 cm.) high, wood stand (2)

Provenance

The Screen: Hugh Moss Collection, acquired in Hong Kong in the 1980s.
Mountain: acquired in New York, early 1990s.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

A similar puddingstone panel and wood stand of the same size is illustrated by G. Tsang and H. Moss in Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 1986, p. 232, no. 219, where it is dated mid to late Qing. The puddingstone (limestone conglomerate) used for the illustrated screen is very similar to that used for the present screen. Although the illustrated stand is of slightly different shape, the arrangement of the bats on the stand appears very similar, with three bats on each side, two of the bats suspending peaches, and two bats on each upper brace. Based on these similarities, it is likely that the screens were made at the same time, at the same workshop.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All