233 - Six-panel screen in red lacquer decorated with figures and palaces, China, Qing Dynasty, 19th–20th century

Six-panel screen in red lacquer decorated with figures and palaces, China, Qing Dynasty, 19th–20th century Six-panel screen in red lacquered wood, with polychrome engraved decoration in the Coromandel style. The main panel depicts a lively scene of figures gathered within a vast palatial complex comprising pavilions, terraces, galleries, and gardens, featuring dignitaries, women, servants, musicians, figures in procession, and Taoist deities. One of the pavilions bears the inscription 恩封九錫, which can be understood as an allusion to imperial favor and investiture, as well as to the nine gifts (jiuxi—九錫), an exceptional distinction granted by the sovereign to the highest-ranking dignitaries. This inscription could thus evoke a ceremony for the conferral of honors or an investiture, filled with auspicious symbols. The decoration is complemented, in the upper registers, by precious objects and scholar’s items, vases adorned with flowers, incense burners, and archaic-style bronzes. The friezes surrounding the main scene are adorned with dragons amid foliage. In the lower sections, dragons appear amidst the clouds. The reverse side, also in red lacquer, features a design of flowers and birds: flowering branches, willows, lotuses, rocks, birds in flight, and waterfowl. The scene is surrounded by a frieze of stylized motifs reminiscent of lingzhi mushrooms and dragons in the clouds. Dimensions: approx. 180 x 45 cm Signs of wear, crazing, a few losses and repairs to the lacquer and polychrome, some lifting and surface alterations, and crazing.