A Gilt-Decorated Black Lacquer Screen. Qing dynasty, 18th Century

the six-panel screen decorated on both sides with an extensive river and mountain landscape featuring pavilions and inhabitants, interspersed with dramatic craggy rockwork, the pavilions connected by a network of individually stylized footbridges, all framed within a wide border of antiques, floral arrangments and floral sprays between two subsidiary floral scroll-band borders, brass hinges and shoes - each leaf 87 by 21 1/4 in., 221 by 54 cm - 40,000—60,000 USD

PROVENANCE : Ciancimino Ltd., London (until 1st June 1983).
Thereafter with the present owner.

NOTE : Screens such as the present example were extremely popular in the West during the 18th century, and continued in popularity into the 19th century, up to the present day. This sumptuous landscape, executed in gilding of various tones on a deep, glossy black lacquer ground evoked for Westerners the glamour and exoticism of the Far East, and would have been a dramatic addition to a grand interior. Such screens would have been particularly striking by the flickering light of candles, with the glittering landscape floating against a dark ground. This type of decoration was so popular that ebenists, particularly in Paris, would disassemble and adapt the panels for furniture such as commodes and other pieces for display. See the discussion on a late 18th/early 19th century screen, illustrated in Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, Tokyo, 1979, fig. 224, pp. 165 and 167, where the author states that 'The most prized of these Canton lacquers were the immense six- or eight-fold screens.' For another example attributed to the 18th/19th century, decorated with an extensive landscape, compare the screen sold in these rooms, 22nd March 1995, lot 383.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art including Chinese and Japanese Art from The Collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal. 16 Sep 08. www.sotheby's.com