17TH-18TH CENTURY

The term Dali stone refers today to all calcitic or dolomitic marbles, but traditionally referred to white marbles with black veining evoking ink paintings. This stone comes from the Diancang mountain range west of Dali in Yunnan province. The lushi, or green, stone, such as the present screen, is considered the most rare, and is technically a form of serpentine. A huanghuali and green marble table screen, dated to the late sixteenth-early seventeenth century, is in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by R. D. Jacobsen and N. Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 208-9, no. 78.

Standing screens were placed inside entrance rooms to dispel draughts and to ward off negative cosmic energies. Monumental standing screens could be placed behind the seats of important people to indicate high status. For one of the largest and finest examples of a floor screen with removable upper panel, see the magnificent Dali marble-inset huanghuali and tielimu screen, sold at Christie's, New York, Important Chinese Furniture, Formerly the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture Collection, 19 September 1996, lot 66, and now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, illustrated by R.D. Jacobson and N. Grindley, op. cit., pp. 152-3, no. 53.