IMPORTANTE ET TRÈS RARE PAIRE DE CABINETS EN LAQUE NOIR PEINT À L'OR

Époque Yongzheng/Qianlong (1723-1795)

Footnotes

Provenance:
Formerly in a French Family Collection in Normandy (by repute).

清雍正/乾隆 黑漆描金多寶閣一對

來源
諾曼底家族舊藏（傳）

This wonderful pair of gold-painted black lacquer display cabinets belongs to an important group of Imperial palace furnishings made in ornate shapes and lavishly decorated with designs painted in shades of gold on a lustrous black lacquer surface. The use of matte gold on a glossy black lacquer ground derived from Japanese lacquer artisans who had explored and perfected the different techniques of applying gold to lacquered surfaces. Many Japanese lacquers were imported into China during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the most exquisite examples finding their way into the Imperial collection. Under the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors, artists working in the imperial workshops were encouraged to create lacquer pieces decorated in the Japanese style, known in Chinese as yangqi or 'foreign-style lacquers'. Highly decorative, it is no surprise that furniture decorated with gold-painted designs on a black lacquer ground is well represented in the former Qing court collection. The Palace Museum collection in Beijing comprises pieces of different sizes, designs and functions, ranging from small intricate boxes to stools, seats, tables, chairs, cabinets, beds and screens, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, pls. 4, 5, 20, 28, 34, 49, 57, 76, 83, 89, 96, 140, 198.

Both the Yongzheng and the Qianlong Emperors and their entourage appreciated this ornate style of furniture. Three of the twelve paintings depicting Twelve Beauties at Leisure commissioned by the future Yongzheng emperor between 1709 and 1723, illustrate interiors that include an example of gold-painted lacquer furniture, one a small barrel-shaped stool, the second a square stool and the third a long table, see in Chunmei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Splendors of China's Forbidden City. The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, Chicago, 2004, pp. 258 and 259, no. 173. A room partitioning elaborately decorated with gold-painted scenes and ornate borders on a black lacquer ground can be seen in situ in the Cuiyun guan (Hall of the Green Cloud) in the Forbidden City, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 262.

The two cabinets presented here are a true pair, their designs made in mirror image. They were planned and constructed for storage and feature panels finely painted with an array of flowers, birds and lush landscapes, openwork panels, all set within frames bordered by archaistic scrollwork. The painted designs are rendered in washes of gold with undertones of red and scattered, coloured lacquer details creating an almost three-dimensional effect. Painted with great attention to detail on all four sides, the cabinets could have been free-standing or positioned against a wall. Cabinets of this design were known as duobaoge ('multiple treasure cabinets') and may have evolved from a type of cabinet made in the mid-Ming period identified as bogu shuge ('extensive antiques and book cabinet'). Their principal function was to display small, precious objects and collectables but also to store books and scrolls. A popular choice, they were made in a variety of sizes and materials including zitan, carved or incised lacquer, and painted gold lacquer. Several examples in the former Qing court collection are known, among them a pair of display cabinets with similar details, illustrated in Hu Desheng, Collections of the Palace Museum. Painted Furniture, Beijing, 2009, pp. 142-143, no. 96. Just how much the Yongzheng emperor admired gold-painted lacquer furniture can be seen in a painting in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, (accession number 00006636-15/16) depicting him as the young prince Yinzheng dressed as a humble Han scholar reading a book, behind him a wonderfully detailed display cabinet with gold-painted elements.