CHINE - XVIIe siècle Lot n° 10

EIGHT LEAF FLAKE FLAKE Coromandel lacquer H. 270 cm - W. 400 cm Accidents and shortages due to humidity This folding screen is decorated with landscapes, palace scenes, flowering branches and foliage, alternating with objects called utensils such as vases or brush pots. The type of lacquerware known as "de Coromandel" was created in China around the middle of the 17th century. Their name, that of the east coast of India, was given by the English because it was in the ports of this coast that these lacquers, exported from China to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, were transshipped from Chinese junks to the ships of the Indian companies. Screens and cabinets were gifts given in China to high dignitaries. They became an export item during the reign of Kangxi (1662-1722) and became very popular in Europe. Many of them were dismembered on arrival and cut into panels to decorate chests of drawers. The technique inaugurates a new mode of decoration. The Wood is covered with a fine cloth, held in place by a coating of vegetable glue and pulverized shale, carefully flattened. The plain lacquer, almost always black, sometimes brown and more rarely red, is then applied in successive layers up to about 3 millimetres thick. The decoration, surrounded by deep incisions and modelled in hollows, is then painted using matt coloured pigments, green, red, blue and white, often accompanied by gold, which contrast with the shine of the lacquer. The most beautiful screens, have large animated scenes of characters or landscapes on a large scale. They occupy the entire surface, except for wide, ornate borders.