Page 62 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

ANOTHER PROPERTY
~741
A RARE IMPERIAL SOAPSTONE PANEL OF FOREIGNERS immortals and scholars. The panels on the back depicted European figures
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722) amidst Western architecture or in landscape settings. Included amongst
the top row of panels on the back of the Wanamaker screen was a panel
The panel is decorated with finely carved soapstone figures of Europeans, featuring an almost identical scene to that of the present panel. Wanamaker
probably Portuguese or Dutch, shown in a rocky landscape, all with curly hair, illustrated this panel in his catalogue on p. 51. (Fig. 1)
and dressed in European attire. The men are gathered around a young boy
seated on an ostrich, all set against a ground of pieced soapstone incised
with tufts of grass, with rocks in the foreground and off to one side a waterfall
partially obscured by clouds and pine trees, and the sky indicated by further
pieced soapstone carved with diaper pattern. Together with the catalogue by
John Wanamaker, A Notable Carved and Painted Twelve-fold Chinese Screen of
the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries from the Imperial Palace in
Pekin, New York and Philadelphia, 1928.
16 º x 18 in. (41.3 x 46 cm.) including hardwood frame
$50,000-70,000

清康熙 御製壽山石雕西洋人物圖屏

It is possible that this rare panel may originally have been part of a large
screen, such as the magnificent Imperial twelve-panel soapstone-inlaid
zitan and hardwood screen from the collection of John Wanamaker,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 7 July 2003,
lot 592. Wanamaker published the screen in a small catalogue entitled,
A Notable Carved and Painted Twelve-fold Chinese Screen of the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries from the Imperial Palace in
Pekin, New York and Philadelphia, 1928. The rectangular panels on the Fig. 1 Carved soapstone panel from an Imperial twelve-panel screen, Kangxi period
(1662-1722). After J. Wanamaker, A Notable Carved and Painted Twelve-Fold Chinese
Wanamaker screen were made in the same manner as the present panel,
Screen, New York and Philadelphia, 1928, p. 51.
i.e. the figures were applied to a pieced soapstone ground with diaper
pattern carved in the sky areas. The panels on the front of the Wanamaker 圖一 清康熙紫檀木嵌壽山石人物圖雕龍壽紋十二扇圍屏(其中一屏)。載於J. Wanamaker《A
screen were all thematically Chinese and depicted scenes of Daoist Notable Carved and Painted Twelve-Fold Chinese Screen》，紐約及費城，1928年，頁 51。