A Very Fine Gilt-Leather Chinoiserie Screen

The four panels richly hand-tooled, gilded and painted with exceptional detail. The reverse black and painted with flowers. Retaining its original surface and in very good condition

England circa 1870

This remarkably fine screen stands apart from others by virtue of its exceptional detailing and quality of painting. The leather is hand-tooled in a wide variety of patterns to give a subtle texture and depth to the background. The central landscape and bordering cartouches are beautifully painted with a delicacy and sophistication that is extremely unusual on leather and which would have represented substantial investment at the times of its creation.

The drawing of the central scene is directly comparable to hand-painted  late 18th century Chinese export wall paper, examples of which can be seen at Saltram or Blickling Hall, rather than the more robust designs of the early 18th century that imitated Coromandel lacquer . The  images of elegant ladies and playful children in an idealised landscape is typical, but the sensitivity with which they are painted  is not. The tooling of the leather is used to emphasise the differing textures of the sky (in  small hatched squares) and the water (in concentric quarte circles), and the figures framed by blossoming trees and exotic birds. The whole is bordered with cartouches of individual vases and baskets of flowers.

Dimensions

Height 176cm | 69 ¼ in

Width 216cm | 85 in

Depth 5cm | 2 in

For more information about this piece, or any of the other pieces on our website, please email info@evershed-martin.com or call + 44 7976 956 247