An Eight-Panel 'Spring Morning in the Han Palace' Coromandel Screen Qing Dynasty

each rectangular panel on rectangular feet with metal caps, the incised, carved and polychromed brownish-black lacquered screen depicting 'Spring Morning in the Han Palace', the upper and lower sections of each panel depicting groups of antiques, the reverse depicting a crane and pair of deer in a landscape set with pine and blossoming prunus trees among rockwork, with an inscription in regular script which may be translated as 'deer is sleeping in deep grassland, crane is standing within venerable pine trees, a beautiful day in the 24th year of Kangxi, carved with respect by Qian Zhenbang from Hongdu', and bearing two seals Qian Zhenbang zhang, and Zhenbang, lotus scroll border, the lower section of each panel depicting a fabulous beast in a landscape

craquelure to surface, repairs to feet, chipping to edges, repairs to edges and surface/restored flakes and losses, lacquer with mottled toning, colors muted, left-end panel faded to pale gold-brown, creasing to metal caps
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'Spring Morning in the Han Palace' was a popular subject for coromandel screens of the Kangxi period. Said to be based on a tale in which a Han lady married a barbarian warrior to bring peace to the Han kingdom, such scenes show ladies at various pursuits in palace pavilions and gardens. 

It is unusual to find eight-panel screens depicting the present subject, most examples having twelve panels. As there is a marked similarity in many of the screens of this period depicting the 'Han Palace', it is likely they were based on a common source, such as the woodblock-printed illustrations which had become so popular during the late Ming and early Qing period. For a discussion of this type of screen and illustrations of similar examples such as a twelve-panel screen in the collects ion of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., see W. De Kesel and G. Dhont, Coromandel Lacquer Screens, Gent, n.d., pp. 48-54, pl. 31-34. Compare also a twelve-panel coromandel screen depicting the 'Han Palace', attributed to the Kangxi period, illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Museum of Art, Belgium, 1999, no. 55, pp. 159-161. Compare also the twelve-panel screen sold in our London rooms, 27th October 1989, lot 84; and the twelve-panel screen sold at Christie's New York, 20th October 2004, lot 334. For screens with similar depictions of deer and cranes in a landscape see W. De Kesel and G. Dhont, pl. 41, 42, p. 62.