A Chinese reverse painted mirror late 18th century

depicting swimming water fowl with water lilies, beneath a tree a fruiting lychee tree with perching birds, with a later pierced and carved giltwood frame with a japanned slip

comparative literature

Graham Child, World Mirrors, 1990, pp.361-86.

The plate for this fine reverse-painted Chinese mirror is possibly of French manufacture, supplied to the painters in Canton which was the centre for this genre of mirror plate decoration through the agency of the Compagnie des Indes. In Common with other European trading companies, it maintained a presence in Canton during the trading seasons. The introduction of this technique of painting on imported glass in China is often accredited to the Jesuit missionary Father Castiglione (1688-1766), who arrived in Peking in 1715, although the technique of `back painting' was already well known in Europe (see G. Child op. cit. pp. 361-86)