Japanese Meiji Period Shibayama Carved Wood Inlaid Stone and Lacquered Panel. Depicts branches, birds, and and a riverbank in exquisite detail. The surrounding frame is carved with floral and bird shapes. On the backside of the red inner panel are lightly painted branches and flowers. This was likely part of a much larger screen at one time, as evidenced by the two half-attached hinges on the back right side, and was separated to turn it into an individual decorative piece of art. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 22 1/2 x 66 1/4 x 1 1/2 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 stone or mother of pearl inlays.  The peak of the fashion for paneling rooms in China was the late 17th Century. By the early 18th Century this decorative style had spread to nearby Asian countries and often covered whole interiors, but in Europe cabinet-makers frequently 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.In the late 18th Century Chinese wallpaper began to reach Europe, and generally replaced lacquer panels as a cover for walls. In the 19th Century Japan began producing a vast quantity of lacquered panels both for export and use in their homes, with the Shibayama family controlling so much of the manufacturing that their name became synonymous with the technique there. However, isolationist policies around the world in the early 20th Century led to a collapse in the market, until a resurgence began post-World War II. Most unseparated surviving folding screens come from after this time, and many complete lacquered screens from both China and Japan continue to appear in the American market, with raised pieces of jade, coral, and other embellishments.

Commensurate with age.