Lot 112
RARE SET OF FOUR SOAPSTONE INLAID 'STORY OF THE WESTERN WING' PANELS
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD
Auction: 8 November 2017 at 17:00 GMT
Description
assembled as two boxes, each with one panel forming the sliding door opening to reveal another panel beneath, each panel inlaid in coloured soapstones with the couple Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying, the top panels showing the man courting the lady in a traditional architectural setting, the bottom panels showing them in amorous embrace (4)
Dimensions
each panel 24.5x19.5cm (excluding wood frame)
Footnote
Provenance:
Private Canadian collection.
Note:
The Story of the Western Wing, also translated as Romance of the Western Chamber, is one of the most famous Chinese dramatic works. Written by the Yuan dynasty playwright Wang Shifu and set in the Tang dynasty, it tells the story of the young couple Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying consummating their love without parental approval and outside of the bond of marriage.
Hailed as 'The Chinese lover's bible', the story has inspired Chinese public imagination for centuries, and has been adapted across a broad range of artistic media: from paintings, woodblock prints, porcelain to ivory carvings. Soapstone inlaid panels from the Qianlong period such as the present lot however are extremely rare, and have almost never appeared on the market. China Guardian sold a similar set of four panels, which however does not include erotic scenes, on 15.11.2011. Another set of ten panels from an unnamed private Chinese collector, similarly arranged into 'romantic and erotic' pairs, was exhibited in 2007 in Beijing.