Page 163 - Bonhams September 10 2018 New York Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS

233
AFTER JIAO BINGZHEN (FL.1689-1726)
Scenes of Silk and Rice Production
A series of 24 loose album leaves, ink and color on silk, each leaf Didactic images of silk and rice production first appeared in Chinese
illustrating various aspects rice and silk production of the 1696 culture around 1145 with the Southern Song dynasty court painter
woodblock printed version of the Gengzhi tu, with a wood box. Lou Shou (1090-1162). Accompanied by poetic inscriptions
8 3/4 x 9 1/8in (22 x 23cm), each leaf describing the individual steps of production, these imperially
sponsored images demonstrated the Emperor’s interest in fostering
$7,000 - 10,000 sound agricultural and sericulture practices for these key economic
engines--and sources of food and clothing for the nation, as well as
(仿) 焦秉貞 耕織圖 設色絹本 冊頁 government revenue through taxation.

In the seventeenth century the Kangxi emperor commission the court
artist Jiao Bingzhen to create a new edition of the Gengzhi tu, which
was published as woodblock printed albums in 1696. As a result of
the book’s wide distribution, the imagery from the 1696 edition soon
began appearing in a variety of media, on porcelain vases, lacquer
screens, fine embroidery, and back to paintings, as seen in the
present lot.

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