THE CUT VELVET LATE MING/EARLY QING DYNASTY, 17TH-EARLY 18TH CENTURY

The panels on the present screen may have derived from a silk velvet carpet, which were of the most prized of the Chinese floor coverings. A velvet carpet fragment with similar lotus pattern and also dating to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, is illustrated by J. Vollmer in Emblems of Empire: Selections from the Mactaggart Art Collection, Edmonton, 2009, p. 140. A silk velvet carpet decorated with lotus scroll and dragons, dating to the Qianlong period, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and is illustrated by Liu Baojian and Yuan Hongqi, Classics of the Forbidden City: Carpets in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2010, pp. 174-5.

Another related silk velvet carpet with similar lotus scroll pattern was sold at Christie’s New York, 29 November 1990, lot 388.