A Gilt-Decorated Red Lacquer Eight-Panel Screen Qing dynasty, 19th Century

each rectangular panel with rectangular feet, the screen decorated in varying tones of gold with a continuous landscape depicting figures at various pursuits among pavilions, rockwork and water, inner border with dragons pursuing 'flaming pearls', encircled by a densely scrolled foliate ground with reserves of birds and flowers and classic landscapes, outer foliate border, the reverse decorated with birds among bamboo and various fruiting and flowering saplings issuing from rockwork, foliate border

The motif of pavilions, rockwork and figures in a watery landscape has been an enduring theme throughout Chinese art. During the late 17th and 18th centuries, a popular motif for coromandel screens was the depiction of Lake Xihu, Hangzhou, from which the present imaginary scene may be derived. The border of writhing dragons on lacquer objects was a favored design of the early to mid-19th century, as were dense foliate grounds and the use of varying tones of gilding. For a gilt-decorated black lacquer work table, c. 1861, with dragon-border enclosing a watery landscape, see David S. Howard, A Tale of Three Cities.  Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Three Centuries of Sino-British Trade in the Decorative Arts, no. 247, p. 188. See also a gilt-decorated black lacquer eight-panel screen, c. 1815, with a wide border of serpentine dragons enclosing a watery landscape, ibid. no. 239, pp. 182-183.