FIVE PAINTED 'FLORAL' WALLPAPER PANELS, QING DYNASTY

French Private Collection.

During the Qing dynasty there was a high demand in Europe for painted Chinese wallpaper panels. The East India Company specialized in their export, together with porcelain and lacquer objects. The present example, delicately painted, illustrates a combination of the European ‘all-over’ floral design with the manner and foliage of Chinoiserie. 

Related pieces are illustrated in Jean Hamilton and Charles Oman, Wallpapers: A History and Illustrated Catalogue of the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1982, pp 58-61. See two examples sold in our Paris rooms: the first, a set of nine panels from the collection of Sylvain Lévy-Alban, sold 17th April 2019, lot 268, and another set of seven from the collection of Pierre Bergé, sold 30th October 2018, lot 18. Compare also a 19th century example formerly in the collections of Hubert de Givenchy and Stanley J. Seeger, sold in our London rooms, 5th-6th March 2014, lot 385.