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+11
images
Not currently on display at the V&A

Screen

ca. 1670-1700 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Six-panelled screen. Overall landscape design with buildings, figures, trees, birds and monkeys. Figures depicted include : those fishing at a river; a man walking with a stick; a man carrying a bag on a stick and women in brightly coloured clothing sitting by a river. There are gold houses on hills, trees with monkeys sitting among the branches, an owl in a tree, birds in the air and flowers with their petals made up of shell. The images are mostly gold, silver or red on the dark lacquer ground. Each panel is attached to the next with metal foil and stud hinges.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Wood, covered in black lacquer, with gold, silver and red <i>hiramaki-e</i> lacquer, and metal foil, studs and shells
Brief description
Wood six-panelled screen covered in black lacquer, with gold, silver and red lacquer, decorated with a landscape scene, Japan, ca. 1670-1700.
Physical description
Six-panelled screen. Overall landscape design with buildings, figures, trees, birds and monkeys. Figures depicted include : those fishing at a river; a man walking with a stick; a man carrying a bag on a stick and women in brightly coloured clothing sitting by a river. There are gold houses on hills, trees with monkeys sitting among the branches, an owl in a tree, birds in the air and flowers with their petals made up of shell. The images are mostly gold, silver or red on the dark lacquer ground. Each panel is attached to the next with metal foil and stud hinges.
Dimensions
  • Height: 171.6cm
  • Width of panel from right to left width: 54.5cm
  • Width: 51.9cm
  • Width: 52.4cm
  • Width: 52.4cm
  • Width: 52.1cm
  • Width: 54.2cm
  • Total width excluding gaps width: 317.5cm
Style
Gallery label
Six-Panelled Screen Wood covered in black lacquer with gold, silver and red hiramaki-e lacquer, metal foil and studs, and shell. Landscape with buildings, figures, trees, birds and monkeys. Although lacquered screens were probably exported from Japan in quite large numbers from about 1630 to 1700, most of them were converted into furniture and very few have survived intact. The decoration of this screen is in a style which is also seen on export cabinets of the same date. The screen may have come from the collection at Hamilton Palace, which included many pieces previously owned by William Beckford (1760-1844) including the Van Diemen box and the Mazarin Chest, also shown here.
Object history
The screen may have come from the collection at Hamilton Palace, which included many pieces previously owned by William Beckford (1760-1844) including the Van Diemen box and the Mazarin Chest.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Oliver Impey, The Art of the japanese Folding Screen, Ashmolean Museum, 1997
Collection
Accession number
FE.50-1980

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Record createdMay 9, 2000
Record URL
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