19TH CENTURY

The folding screen is an important and versatile piece in classical Chinese furniture, often placed in prominent positions within interiors. It serves the practical functions of dividing and decorating spaces as well as shielding against the wind. The large, flat surfaces of the panels allowed craftsmen to employ a wide variety of decorative techniques, including carving, gilding, and insetting inlays, as seen on the present screen. The combination of motifs shown on the current screen, which include vases, baskets, jade carvings, and scrolls, is known in Chinese as bogu tu (Appreciating Antiques), symbolizing a reverence for history and scholarship. A hanging screen similarly decorated with bogu tu motif in cloisonné enamels, jade and other hardstones, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum - vol. 20: Screen, Beijing, pp. 650-651, no. 183.