|
TWO CHINESE FAMILLE VERTE FIGURATIVE PLAQUES.
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi era.
Each decorated with an exterior scene within a decorative border, one with ladies and children on a veranda, the other with warriors on horseback, 21 x 27.5cm. (2)
£4,000-5,000
|
|
  |
A CHINESE COROMANDEL LACQUER SCREEN.
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi era.
The panel carved and coloured on one side with a lady on horseback beside an official beneath a pine tree, the characters [Qianli] song jingniang in the corner, the reverse with a calligraphic inscription, mounted on a wooden base, 26 x 15cm.
£2,000-3,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL CIRCULAR WASHER, TANGLUOXI.
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong mark and of the period.
The sides of the exterior decorated with four circular panels of European ladies, on a floral yellow ground, 10cm diameter.
Provenance: Spink & Son [label].
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL DISH.
Qing Dynasty, 18th / 19th Century.
The central panel decorated with flowers and auspicious symbols, bordered by four shaped floral reserves on a puce-enamelled cell pattern ground, the underside with four Buddhist emblems, centred with a peach, 23cm diameter.
£100-200
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL DISH.
Qing Dynasty, 18th/19th Century.
Painted in bright famille-rose enamels with a central medallion enclosing a family scene depicting a beauty reclining on a gnarled hollow tree, and surrounded by three boys at play in a garden setting, within two bands of floral spray, the outer one with four panels of fruit, the reverse with a central blue dragon roundel on a yellow ground, 27cm diameter.
£1,500-2,000
|
|
|
A CANTON ENAMEL 'LANDSCAPE' DISH.
Qing Dynasty, 18th / 19th Century.
Painted with an expansive watery and mountainous landscape, inscribed with a poem and two hand drawn seals, shijing and riguang, 41.5cm diameter.
£4,000-6,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL WINE POT AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
With canted corners and tall arch handle, the sides decorated with landscape scenes, all reserved flower-scroll ground in various colours, 17cm H.
£600-800
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL TEAPOT AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng era.
With a globular body, the slender curved spout set opposite a C-shaped handle, the body decorated in vivid colours with two panels, one with a bird on a flowering branch, the other with peonies emerging from behind a lapis blue rock, on a green cell-pattern and red scrolling floral ground, a finial to the cover emerging from the centre of a flower head, 11.5cm H.
£600-800
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL STEM CUP.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
The cup decorated with black and gilt scrolling flowers on a pink ground, the stem with similar patterns in blue, 12cm H.
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL TAZZA.
Late Qing Dynasty.
Decorated to the stem and base with alternating scrolling flowers on a pale blue ground and lapis blue bands, the interior with a single flower head, 18cm H.
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL BOX AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
The cover decorated with a European scene with a moulded floral border, the sides and base decorated with enamelled white metal, European-style decorative elements raised from below the surface of the white enamel, 11 x 7 x 4 cm.
£2,000-3,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE CANTON ENAMEL HEXAGONAL BOX AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
With cut corners, decorated with scrolling blue flowers on a white ground, the centre of the cover with five bats encircling a fu character, with a further four Buddhist emblems, another four emblems around the edges, 26cm diameter.
£500-800
|
|
|
A CHINESE 'PSEUDO TOBACCO LEAF' TEAPOT AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
Of globular form, decorated with raised decoration to the handle and spout, decorated to the body with the typical design, the cover similarly decorated, 14.5cm H.
£2,000-3,000
|
|
  |
A CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE DISH AND TEAPOT AND COVER.
Qing Dynasty.
The plate Yongzheng, 23cm diameter, the teapot Qianlong, 11cm H. (2)
£100-200
|
|
|
TWO CHINESE EUROPEAN SUBJECT PLATES.
Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng to Qianlong era.
23cm diameter. (2)
£300-500
|
|
|
A PAIR OF CHINESE MEISSEN STYLE TEA CANISTERS AND COVERS.
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong era.
Each decorated with landscape scenes after a Meissen original, 12.5cm H. (2)
£100-200
|
|
|
A CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE TUREEN AND COVER.
Late Qing Dynasty, 19th Century.
Decorated to the exterior of the tureen and cover with a continuous landscape scene, the cover with two bands of studs and a decorative floral finial, jin tang fa ji mark to base, 20cm long.
£500-700
|
|
|
A CHINESE GRISAILLE CHARGER.
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong era.
Decorated with a central scene of birds decorated in grisaille and gilt surrounded by a border of thickly enamelled blue florets, 35cm diameter.
Provenance: Bluetts [label].
£200-300
|
|
|
A PAIR OF CHINESE LARGE FAMILLE NOIRE VASES AND COVERS.
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong era, c. 1750.
Enamelled in a bright famille rose palette with leaf-shaped panels enclosing the 'hundred treasures', on a black ground of covered in green scrolling vines and brightly coloured flowers, decorated with ruyi lappet bands to the shoulders, the domed covers similarly decorated and surmounted by a bud finial, 61cm H (2)
£6,500-7,000
| Reverse glass paintings occupy a special position within Chinese art, crossing over the genres of Chinese export art, glass working, the painting genre of meirenhua (paintings of beauties) and erotic art. Generally associated with English country house collections throughout the 18th Century and later, when their vibrant colours and exotic flavour made them the height of fashionable sophistication and indeed both lots 120 and 121 were almost certainly produced for the export market. Lot 120 follows a European original which would have been reversed and meticulously copied in oils onto the glass by use of a Chinese brush by artists working in and around Guangzhou to service the Southern Chinese ports and the export market. For a depiction of the process from the collection of the V&A see lower left.
However, since the point of its inception within China, reverse painting was very much an Imperial concern, with Chinese rulers themselves appreciating their exotic foreign characteristics. Huc (1858) mentions that Castiglione learned to paint in oils on glass (Le christianisme en Chine, en Tartarie et au Thibet). Amiot (1786) notes that the Qianlong emperor commissioned Castiglione to paint large mirrors (Memoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages etc. des Chinois, Vol 2).
Beurdeley's (1971) catalogue raisonné of Guiseppe Castiglione does not include any examples of reverse glass painting. However, one painting in oils, plate 85, a portrait of a young woman dressed as a European Shepherdess, bears close compositional similarities to works on glass, reproduced upper left. The piece is attributed to Castiglione and is listed as being formally in the Imperial Palace Collection (Guiseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors). The oil, said to depict the Qianlong Emperor's favourite concubine, Rong Fei, presents a Chinese lady seated in a relaxed pose in loose flowing robes and staring directly at the viewer, all features shared with the beauty depicted in lot 121. The erotic undertones of both paintings, explain why the latter painting was selected by Bertholet for inclusion within his book on the subject. The piece also fits into a wider category of beauty paintings, which has experienced an expansion of academic attention led by James Cahill (2010) and the recent exhibition, Beauty Revealed (2013). Neither, however, addressed reverse glass paintings despite its contribution to the genre. Whilst primarily an export art, its Imperial patronage, technical sophistication and Chinese aesthetics demand that it receive closer academic attention within the canon of Chinese painting art. | |
|
|
A CHINESE REVERSE GLASS PAINTING.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
Depicting the Madonna and child together with John the Baptist, painted after a European engraving, 33 x 29cm.
Provenance: Acquired by the present owner from Christie's South Kensington, 27th January 1983, lot 4.
£2,000-3,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE REVERSE GLASS PAINTING OF A BEAUTY.
Qing Dynasty, 18th Century.
Depicting a lady seated at a red lacquer table, smiling with the head lowered to the left, the left hand raised, dressed in ornate clothing and headdress, in front of blue curtains, 31.5 x 26cm.
Provenance: With Roger Keverne.
£4,000-6,000
Literature: Concubines and Courtesans: Women in Chinese Erotic Art by F M Bertholet, page 134, plate 120.
|
|
|
A CHINESE EROTIC INK PAINTING.
Qing Dynasty.
Depicting an amorous couple, behind a curtain, an attendant seated beside them preparing tea, a cabinet behind contains books, bronzes and other antiques, on the right hand of the painting is a table in front of a panelled wall with an engorged red coral sprig in a tall vase, the whole scene is visible from above a tiled wall behind a gnarled rock, framed and glazed, 32 x 41cm.
£600-800
|
|
|
A CHINESE EROTIC AMBER COLOURED CARVING.
Decorated with a nubile lady reclining beside a small animal on a leaf, 8.5cm long.
£500-800
|
|
|
CHINESE SCHOOL.
Late Qing Dynasty.
An oil painting portrait of a lady, framed, 69 x 56cm.
£200-300
|
|
|
A CHINESE PAINTING OF LADIES AT LEISURE.
Qing Dynasty, 19th Century.
Depicting a pair of ladies playing a game and relaxing on a luohan chuang, with barrel stools lying on a colourful bat and fu character carpet, and a bonsai on a stand in the background, 42 x 32cm.
£200-300
|
|
|
A CHINESE INK PAINTING OF TWO BEAUTIES IN A GARDEN.
Late Qing Dynasty.
Standing beside a rocky outcrop behind blossoming plants, mounted and glazed, 72 x 48cm.
£100-200
|
|
|
A EUROPEAN DRAWING OF A PANORAMA OF THE PEARL RIVER.
Qing Dynasty.
Framed and glazed, 14 x 92cm.
£500-800
|
|
  |
A PAIR OF CHINESE BOTANICAL PAINTINGS.
Qing Dynasty.
One depicting a flowering titonia plant, labelled guanyinlan, the other depicting a sweet chestnut branch with a grasshopper on one of the branches, labelled feng li, framed and glazed, the paintings 29 x 22cm. (2)
£200-300
|
|
  |
A CHINESE ALBUM OF RICE PAPER PAINTINGS OF INSECTS AND BUTTERFLIES.
Qing Dynasty, c. 1840.
Containing eleven plates of brightly coloured paintings, boards covered in red silk damask, 25 x 37cm.
£200-300
Literature: For a closely related painting, attributed to Youqua, see Crossman: The China Trade: Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities, 1991, colour pl 70.
|
|
|
A CHINESE ALBUM OF RICE PAPER PAINTINGS.
Qing Dynasty, early 19th Century.
Containing twenty-four leaves depicting studies of male and female courtiers, landscape studies, acrobats and birds, each mounted with silk borders, half bound in leather on marbled boards, tooled decoration to the spine and five raised bands, 30 x 23cm.
£600-800
|
|
|
Y A CHINESE CANTON CARVED IVORY BRISÉ FAN WITH PAINTED LEAF.
Late Qing Dynasty.
Carved with figures in a landscape setting, both sides painted with a large group of figures relaxing on a palace veranda, the guard sticks deeply carved with further figures, 27cm long.
£200-300
|
|
  |
A PAIR OF CHINESE 'BIRD AND FLOWER' BAMBOO BLIND PAINTINGS.
Qing Dynasty.
Each painted with a scene of birds on flowering or fruiting branches, mounted in silk brocade, 167 x 49cm. (2)
£1,000-1,500
|
|
  |
A PAIR OF CHINESE 'BIRD AND FLOWER' BAMBOO BLIND PAINTINGS.
Qing Dynasty.
Each painted with a scene of birds on flowering or fruiting branches, mounted in silk brocade, 167 x 49cm. (2)
£1,000-1,500
Due to their delicate nature, painted blinds of this kind are rare survivors. They were typically hung to protect against the harsher rays of sunlight as demonstrated by the painting 'Zhulang xuan tu' by Yu Zhiding (1647<\a>1709). In bright sunlight the painted scenes become attractively illuminated creating a beautiful yet practical partition between interior space and the natural world outside.
|
|
   |
A COLLECTION OF THREE CHINESE FAN PAINTINGS.
Qing Dynasty.
Each painted with a scene of birds on flowering or fruiting branches, mounted in silk brocade, 24 x 52cm. (3)
£100-200
|
|
|
A COLLECTION OF FOUR CHINESE ALBUM LEAVES.
19th / 20th Century.
30.5 x 48cm.
£200-300
|
|
|
A CHINESE PAINTING OF EIGHT IMMORTALS.
Qing Dynasty.
Borne on wispy clouds above a sea filled with fantastical creatures, framed and glazed, 94 x 35.5cm.
£150-200
|
|
|
A CHINESE PAINTING.
Qing Dynasty.
Depicting a seated figure holding a basket of flowers, another behind holding a flower, framed and glazed, 111 x 37cm
£150-200
|
|
|
A CHINESE TEXTILE PANEL.
Qing Dynasty.
Depicting three scenes of figures in a landscape setting embroidered on a blue ground, framed and glazed, 169 x 45cm.
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE EMBROIDERY DRAGON FRAGMENT.
Ming Dynasty, Wanli era.
Embroidered with a five-clawed dragon striding above turbulent waves floating with auspicious emblems, amidst wispy clouds, 38 x 70cm.
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE EMROIDERED DRAGON ROBE.
Late Qing Dynasty.
Decorated with dragon roundels to the front, shoulders and back above turbulent waves and lishui stripe, on a blue damask ground, 76cm H, 128cm across.
£150-200
|
|
|
A CHINESE PINK GROUND LADY'S INFORMAL JACKET.
Early 20th Century.
Of pink silk damask, with white silk sleeve bands and black bindings, 90 x 130cm.
£100-200
|
|
|
A PAIR OF CHINESE CURTAIN TEXTILES.
Qing Dynasty.
Embroidered with figurative scenes, boats and garden architecture on a red silk ground, 252 x 150cm. (2)
£400-600
|
|
|
A CHINESE MOTHER-OF-PEAR INLAID BLACK LACQUER TEA CADDY.
Qing Dynasty, second quarter of 18th Century.
Of octagonal section the top with a figurative scene, the sides inlaid with scrolling floral detail, the metal lock formed as a bat, 28cm H.
Provenance: The Contents of Fulbeck Hall, Sotheby's, 8th October 2002.
£100-200
Literature: For a similar example see Crossman: The China Trade: Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities, 1991, pl 157.
|
|
|
A CHINESE MOTHER-OF-PEARL 'SHAN' CHARACTER INLAID PANEL.
Decorated with birds among flowering plum branches, overall forming the character shan, 42 x 37cm.
£300-500
|
|
|
A CHINESE BONE INLAID HARDWOOD TABLE.
Qing Dynasty.
Of scroll form, the top inlaid with panel depicting a figurative garden landscape scene inlaid and incised in horn, with two figures and ladies beneath pine behind a wall where two children are crouched, with a further group seated on a terrace, two further inlaid panels on the shoulders of the table, with similar scenes, the carved and pierced aprons overlaid with pierced and incised horn as bats, fu characters, coins, ribbons and other auspicious decoration, 32 x 41 x 108cm.
£1,000-1,500
|
|
|
A MOTHER OF PEARL INLAID OCTAGONAL STAND.
Qing Dynasty, Kangxi era.
The top inlaid with a panel depicting a figurative scene of two gentlemen seated on a roofed terrace beside two boys beneath a pine tree, within a decorative floral border, supported on eight cabriole legs on a stretcher, covered in diaper and floral decoration, the aprons with panels enclosing a pair of birds, 20cm H, 22.5cm diameter.
Provenance: Formally in a Japanese private collection, acquired before 1960.
£8,000-12,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE BONE INLAID WOODEN STAND.
Late Qing Dynasty.
The top inlaid with a landscape scene, further auspicious decoration on the legs, with turned bone galleried apron, 45cm H.
£200-300
|
|
|
TWO CHINESE ZHAZHENMU STANDS.
Late Qing Dynasty, 19th Century.
Each of square section with carved scrolling aprons, one with a central coin motif, each stand with crackled-ice platform, 77cm H. (2)
Provenance: Private Collection, acquired in 1991.
£1,000-2,000
|
|
|
A CHINESE ROSEWOOD TABLE.
Qing Dynasty.
Of square form the legs joined by beaded, humpback stretchers, 52 x 55 x 55cm.
£120-150
|
|
|
A CHINESE WOOD DISPLAY STAND.
Late Qing Dynasty.
On two levels with beaded apron, the legs joined by beaded, humpback stretchers, 77cm H.
£120-150
|
|
