A CHINESE EXPORT SIX-FOLD WALLPAPER SCREEN (c. 1790 to 1800 China)

1013

watercolour on paper

400.00 cm wide   190.00 cm high

157.48 inches wide  74.80 inches high

Private east coast American Collection

Professionally conserved by Allyson Mcdermott, Gloucestershire, England who has worked on the Royal Collection of Eighteenth Century Chinese wallpapers at Buckingham Palace.

finely painted with a garden scene in southern China with various figures engaged in different pursuits, mounted as a screen and backed in a claret-coloured oil cloth printed with an `indian' design.

Known as `India' papers, Chinese wallpapers began to appear in England and Europe from the late 17th century. They were considered appropriate decoration for the best apartments and became much sort after. The vogue for Chinese wallpaper reached its peak in the 18th century, when Chinese artisans in southern China principally around modern day Guangzhou (Canton) were producing decorative schemes for export to the west. The landscape designs were the most expensive and even in 1787 George Washington had expressed interest in decorating his house with `it is possible I may avail myself of your kind offer of sending India Paper for my new Room (the dining room at Mount Vernon)'.

In all these figure subjects the landscape is presented in accordance with Chinese conventions. In the upper portions of the paper the jagged mountain tops, with the figure groups below in `islands' divided by rocks and trees. The panoramic landscape papers were more expensive than the `birds and flower' kind.

Fine examples hang in many European country houses and palaces, including Nostell Priory,Yorkshire, designed by Robert Adam, Carton House, Ireland; Ramsbury Wiltshire; the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm Sweden and La Villa della Regina, Torino, Italy.

Please email or call +44 (0)1303 813581 for more information or to purchase this item.

FOR SALE