Page 250 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

William Boyce Thompson (1869-1930) 收藏，此後家族傳承

Catalogue Note
The lavish use of semi-precious stones on this panel exemplifies the opulence of the Qianlong Emperor's taste and the remarkable
lapidary skills and materials available during his reign. While hardwood panels inlaid intermittently with hardstones are known, the
density of the materials built up on this panel is particularly rare and striking. Layer upon layer of hardstones including lapis lazuli,
jade, malachite and tourmaline and the construction of such a piece would have required the collaboration of a number of
departments within the Imperial Palace Workshops. Each piece is carefully fashioned and perfectly fitted together to create a
harmonious and otherworldly scene. An added sense of luxurious ethereality is created by the gilded background incised with
scrolling clouds, which enhances the multiple hues of the hardstones.

Often made in pairs, wall panels adorned the numerous private halls built under the direction of the Qianlong Emperor. The pair to
the present panel was sold alongside the present, amongst numerous other imperial items, from the collection of Lee Van Ching
(Li Wenqing) at American Art Galleries, 14th February 1917, lot 216 (fig. 1). The present scene depicts the Eight Daoist Immortals
on the Kunlun Mountains, the dwelling place of Xiwangmu and her orchard of 3,600 peach trees of immortality. Holding branches
of flowers and lingzhi, the Immortals appear to be waiting with gifts to bestow upon Xiwangmu in celebration of her birthday. No
other closely related panel appears to have been published which attests to the importance and distinction of the present.

Similarly sumptuously inlaid panels are known from the Qianlong period; however, these differ in style in that they generally
attempt to recreate paintings or images in a naturalistic manner, as opposed to the abstracted style of the present. Perhaps the
closest thematic and stylistic example is the pair of gilt-bronze inlaid luohan panels, from the collection of A.W. Bahr, which sold at
American Art Association, 17th-19th January 1916, lot 500, and then remained in the collection of William Cobbett Skinner's family
until being sold in these rooms, 11th September 2019, lot 667. Further lavish inlaid panels in the Palace Museum, Beijing, include
one in the shape of a ruyi, depicting birds perched on flowering branches and a rectangular example illustrating a blossoming
prunus tree, included in the exhibition The Emperor’s Private Paradise. Treasures from the Forbidden City, Peabody Essex Museum,
Salem, 2010, cat. nos 25 and 22 respectively.

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