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Lot Essay
The ancient Asian art of lacquering, involving the application of multiple thin layers of sap from the Rhus vernicifera tree, was to Europeans yet another exotic luxury from these faraway lands previously unknown to them. Coromandel (misnamed as it was trans-shipped from the Coromandel coast in India by the British East India Company), or 'bantam work', is the decorative technique of carving into these layers of lacquer and then painting the carved details.
Very wealthy households in late 17th century Europe began to feature Chinese lacquer. A six-fold screen with Chinese hunters was a gift from Elihu Yale to Joshua Edisbury of Erthig in 1682; the 1679 Ham House inventory describes an 'Indian cabinet'. But it is only in the early 18th century that Western merchants began to dictate subjects for special order lacquer pieces, and depictions of Europeans on these works are exceedingly rare. Here we see the hunters in 17th century Portuguese dress, their high hats and pantaloons somewhat exaggerated, as they were on the famous 'black ship' screens of Japan.
A large coromandel lacquer screen with very similar scene of Europeans is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 1975.333, acquired in 1975, R.H. Ellsworth LTD., New York. A very similar screen of the same scale as the present example is in the collection of the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida in Lisbon (unpublished).
Very wealthy households in late 17th century Europe began to feature Chinese lacquer. A six-fold screen with Chinese hunters was a gift from Elihu Yale to Joshua Edisbury of Erthig in 1682; the 1679 Ham House inventory describes an 'Indian cabinet'. But it is only in the early 18th century that Western merchants began to dictate subjects for special order lacquer pieces, and depictions of Europeans on these works are exceedingly rare. Here we see the hunters in 17th century Portuguese dress, their high hats and pantaloons somewhat exaggerated, as they were on the famous 'black ship' screens of Japan.
A large coromandel lacquer screen with very similar scene of Europeans is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 1975.333, acquired in 1975, R.H. Ellsworth LTD., New York. A very similar screen of the same scale as the present example is in the collection of the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida in Lisbon (unpublished).
