(4) Panel Chinese Wooden Screen as Wall Decor. Lot comprised of four wooden screen panels, dismantled and converted into hanging wall decor. Four black lacquer frames, with raised relief on each of attractive flower arrangements in vases made of green jade and pink coral. 

Size (each): 18 3/8 x 6 3/8 in.

Coromandel lacquer is a type of Chinese lacquerware, latterly mainly made for export, so called only in the West because it was shipped to European markets via the Coromandel coast of south-east India, where the Dutch East Indies Company and its European rivals had bases in the 18th Century. The most common type of object made in the style, both for Chinese domestic use and exports, was the Coromandel screen, a large folding screen with as many as twelve leaves, coated in black lacquer with large pictures using the kuan cai (meaning “incised colors”) technique, sometimes combined with mother of pearl inlays. But in Europe, cabinet-makers often cut the screens into a number of panels, which were inserted into pieces of furniture made locally in the usual European shapes of the day, or mounted within wood paneling on walls. The peak of the fashion for paneling rooms was the late 17th Century. By the 18th Century, Chinese wallpaper began to reach Europe, and generally replaced lacquer panels as a cover for walls. Most unseparated surviving folding screens come from after this time, and in the 20th Century there was a resurgence in interest, with many complete lacquered screens from both China and Japan appearing in the American market, with raised pieces of jade, coral, and other embellishments.

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