19TH CENTURY

Details

A SET OF FOUR DALI MARBLE-INSET AND HONGMU WALL SCREENS
19TH CENTURY
Each wall screen has a rounded rectangular beaded frame of hongmu enclosing panels of nanmu, inset with plaques of Dali marble within hongmu frames. The plaques are incised with inscriptions and seal marks.
Each panel 64 3/8 in. (163.5 cm.) high, 27 3/8 in. (69.5 cm.) wide, 1 ¼ in. (3.2 cm.) deep

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

Hanging wall screens inset with Dali marble plaques like the present examples became popular during the late Ming and Qing dynasties. Each panel of marble, with its natural veins and inclusions running through it, suggests a mountainous landscape. Thus, on the walls of a scholar’s studio, they offered varied and momentary escapes from the humdrum of the domestic environ. Compare with the very similar set of four currently on view in the Astor Court in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1995.418a-d), illustrated by Paul Moss in When Men and Mountains Meet: Chinese and Japanese Spirit Rocks, London, 1995, no. 48. See, also, a set of four screens, but each with four marble panels, illustrated by Tian Jiaqing, Classic Chinese Furniture of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 246-47, no. 110.

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