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Lot 536
A MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INLAID SCREEN
Estimated Value:
1.500 € - 2.500 €
Schätzpreis:
4.500 €
Description:
China, 1st half 17th c.53 x 53 x 26 cm
Monika Kopplin describes in her excellent article 'Karako Japanese 'chinoiseries' on French lacquer furniture' in the spring issue of the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift 2023 the present screen as following: 'More serene is a table setting screen, one side of which is again decorated with a garden scene and children playing. The decoration is inlaid with shimmering green and pink abalone (Haliotis tuberculata) in red lacquer. Again, a tree protruding into the centre of the picture, a tall sweet-scented flower (Osman-thus fragrans), and a banana plant lend the composition a framing structure. The banana tree with its leaves used for writing, as well as the scented flower, guihua, symbolising social prestige and associated with passing the state examination, point to the changed interpretation of the motif, since the boys playing here, one of whom has fallen asleep at his desk over his studies, are preparing themselves by reading and writing for their destined status as civil servant-scholars. The expression changong zhegui, "breaking the fragrant branch of the Moon Palace", alludes to the successful completion of the imperial state examinations, which took place in autumn at the same time as the late blossoming of this tree. Identified as guizi in this way, this reading corresponds to that of the karako on our panel, just as the compositional design with the desk set up under the protective branches of the tree and the main group arranged around it can be found in the transposition in the Japanese lacquer workshop'.
Collection Dr. Rainer Kreissl (1924 - 2005) - Important South German private collection, collected before 1990
Published: Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, No. 45, Spring 2023, p. 46, No. 6 - Minim. age damage, few losses of the inlays
