A LARGE AND IMPORTANT TWELVE-PANEL COROMANDEL LACQUER SCREEN QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD, DATED TO THE GUIYOU YEAR CORRESPONDING TO 1693

elaborately carved on both sides and painted in polychrome, the front depicting the 'one hundred birds courting the phoenix', with a central pair of phoenix perched on rockwork beside flowering peony and beneath a large flowering tree, with numerous other birds including egrets, crane, pheasants and mandarin ducks beside flowering lotus, magnolia and peony, all between a mountainous river landscape and mythical beast panels, the reverse with a long dedicatory inscription by the scholar Zheng Zhong to Liu Lang’s mother for her 70^th birthday, with other dedicatory inscriptions from regional officials and the cyclical guiyou date corresponding to 1693, all reserved on a brown lacquer ground

A French noble collection.

This rare Coromandel lacquer screen is generally in good condition, however are some areas of old restoration and re-lacquering to the brown ground and particularly to the sides of most panels to both sides. There are some cracking and splits to the lacquer in some areas and a number of which are filled, particularly vertical ones running from the bottom of some panels and near the sides around the centre of the panels. There is some horizontal crackle to the surface of the lacquer consistent with age, and some minor chips in various areas. There are carved recesses on the sides of each panel relating to where old hinges would have joined the screens. New hinges have been inserted directly above these. Various areas of the flowers, birds, animals and rockwork have some losses of pigments to the front and back panels.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Decorated with a complex and extravagant scene depicting an array of birds amongst flowering trees, this is an outstanding and rare example of Coromandel lacquer made for the domestic Chinese market. Its intricate decoration and large size are testament to its owner’s wealth and high social standing. Dated to the guiyou year of the Kangxi reign, corresponding to 1693, according to the dedicatory inscription on the reverse, this screen was commissioned to honour Liu Lang’s mother's on her 70th birthday and bears the seal mark of Zheng Zhong, a scholar known for his poetry and originally from Shaanxi province. The inscription recounts details from the life of Liu’s mother and praises the way she raised a virtuous gentleman.

 

The screen is decorated  with a carefully selected and auspicious design of ‘hundred birds courting the phoenix’ (bainiao chaohuang or bainiao chaofeng), or ‘hundred birds paying homage to the king’ (bainiao chaowang). As the phoenix is the king of birds, this motif illustrates the ‘Picture of the Five Relationships (luxutu, wuluntu): the cranes represent the relationship between father and son; mandarin ducks the relationship between husband and wife; wagtails the relationship between brothers; and the relationship between friends is represented by the orioles.

 

A slightly smaller undated screen decorated with this theme, from the C.T. Loo collection, is illustrated in Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, Tokyo, 1979, col. pl. 184; another was sold in our New York rooms, 7th/8th April 1988, lot 445; a third, from the collection of the Countess of Bismarck, was sold in our Monaco rooms, 30th November 1986, lot 739; and a further example from the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, was sold at Christie’s New York, 19th March 2008, lot 383. Although Coromandel lacquer screens were made mainly for the domestic and export markets, a small number of screens also entered the imperial collection, such as an eight-panel screen decorated on one side with birds and flowers, and on the reverse with figures, illustrated in A Treasury of Ming & Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, Beijing, 2007, pl. 377, together with a twelve-panel example with figures, pl. 378. 

 

Large Coromandel screens of this type were made from the late Ming period, although their popularity grew in the Kangxi reign. Highly expensive and laborious to produce, these screens were often commissioned by wealthy merchants as birthday gifts and made at centres in Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangxi province.