Page 236 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART INCLUDING THE COLLECTION OF DOROTHY TAPPER GOLDMAN

The Property of a West Coast Private Collector
1124
R
A VERY RARE LARGE CARVED RED LACQUER
KANG CABINET
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
46º in. (117.5 cm.) high, 30q in. (77.5 cm) wide, 12º in. (31.1 cm.) deep
$150,000-250,000
PROVENANCE:
The Collection of President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1877) (by repute).
The Collection of Elizabeth Chapman Grant (1850-1945).
The Collection of Chapman Grant (1887-1983).

美४西岸私́珍藏
清̖隆 ץ紅龍紋炕櫃
Ϝ源
美४✼統尤利西斯gSg格蘭ṁ 1822 1877
珍藏 ҷ
ͺ麗莎白g 查普曼g 格蘭ṁ 1850 1945
珍藏
查普曼g 格蘭ṁ 1887 1983
珍藏
The current cabinet was purchased from a descendent of the family
of Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822-1885) through Grant’s granddaughter,
Elizabeth Chapman Grant (1850-1945) and her son, Chapman Grant
(1887-1983) both of San Diego, California, from whom correspondence
are held by the current owner.
Following his presidency of 1869-1877, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked on a
world tour as a diplomatic envoy at the urging of the current President,
Rutherford B. Hayes. During these travels he met with many notable
world leaders including King Leopold II, the Meiji Emperor, Otto von
Bismarck, Queen Victoria, and Pope Leo XIII. Included in the tour
was a portion through Asia and visits in China where Grant met with
Prince Gong and General Li Hongzhang. Given his prowess as a great
military tactician following his victory as the leader of the Union Army
during the American Civil War, Grant was asked to act as mediator
over a dispute between China and Japan over the Ryukyu Islands. Over
the course of the travels, President Grant amassed a large collection
which went on to serve as the core of a permanent exhibition at the
Smithsonian. A portion of the collection was donated by the Grant
family in 1885.
Superbly carved and of impressive size, measuring 117.5 cm. high, this
magnificent cabinet far outsizes its more commonly-seen counterparts,
which typically measure around 60 cm. high. The cabinet is finely
carved on the front with writhing dragons amidst clouds, and carved on
the sides with bats and flowers. Most unusually, the reverse is incised
with floral patterns underscoring an overarching attention to detail
and quality, where attention is given to areas that would have remained
hidden from the viewer. The quality and the scale of the present cabinet
suggests that this was made for an imperial context. A nearly identical
example, measuring 129 cm. high, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and
illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection, A Treasury of Ming &
Qing Palace Furniture-54, Beijing, 2007, p. 247, pl. 210, where another
related example, but in zitan, illustrated, p. 245, no. 208. Cabinets of
this size would have been placed on a larger kang platform, such as the
embellished zitan example shown in situ by the north window of the
west room in the “Palace of Gathering Excellence” (Chu Xiu Gong),
illustrated in ibid., p. 298, no. 251.
(another view)

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