Page 18 - Vol 111, Japanese Works Of Art In The Collection of the Queen, by John Ayers

2029 Five-storey pagoda
RCIN 26030.a–l
Red and green lacquered wood, and brass
China; late 18th to early 19th century
H (overall) 144.0 cm

The octagonal building raised on a low, stepped, carved,
lacquered base, with five storeys of diminishing size, each
with a bowed roof supported by projecting red brackets at the
turned-up corners, from each of which hangs a small brass
bell. A broader platform surrounded by a plain balustrade has
steps leading to the first main floor, where, on each face, a low
balustrade in three openwork sections connects the eight pillars
joined by arches that support the roof, the walls round the centre
behind alternately pierced by windows and by doors leading to
a central room. The top storey with arched windows instead of
doors, and capped by a steeply inclined, curving, hexagonal roof,
topped by a bulbous finial in red and green, carved with a lotus
scroll design.

PROVENANCE: Queen Mary, by 1928.

INVENTORY REFERENCE: qmb.ii.218.

EXHIBITED: International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of
Arts, London, 1935–6, lent by Queen Mary.

LITERATURE: London 1935–6, p. 102, no. 2314.

2029

NON-CERAMIC W ORKS OF ART FR OM CHINA 883