pair of screens

pair of screens , 1700s–1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: wood; lacquer

Credit line: Bequest of Helen Foresman Spencer

Accession number: 1982.0156.a,b

On display: Long Ellis Gallery

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Soundings: Making Culture at Sea

Motifs from Chinese bird-and-flower paintings appealed to the decorative tastes of European and European-American consumers, particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries, whether on Indian printed textiles or carved polychrome lacquer screens such as this one. Produced along China’s southeast coast, these screens came to be called Coromandel, a name derived from the Coromandel coast in southeast India, a major export center from which these luxury products were shipped for global circulation.

Archive Label date unknown:
The term coromandel is used today in the west to describe a type of lacquerware first made in China in the 17th century. These wares were initially referred to as Bantam after the Dutch East India Company port in Java through which they were exported. In the 20th century this lacquerware came to be called coromandel, a name derived from another export center, the Coromandel coast in southeast India.
The solid wooden boards forming the basis of Coromandel screens and other objects were first covered by a composition of whiting mixed with adhesive. This was smoothed down and then covered with a few layers of black or brown lacquer . The carved decoration was obtained by cutting the lacquer away down to the white surface, and then applying pigments of different colors. A great variety of subjects were used as decoration, including landscapes, legends, scenes of domestic life, and birds and flowers. These lacquered panels were then mounted on a frame which was in turn decorated with painted lacquer and/or inlaid with mother of pearl, and joined to other sections with clasps. Coromandel screens were not originally made as export ware but production increased considerabley when they became popular in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.