Four lacquer and gilt-bronze calligraphy panels

清早期， 十七 / 十八世紀   黑漆嵌銅 [兩都賦序]四條掛屏

Each panel is of upright rectangular form, with a central field of conforming shape, set on a black lacquer ground with three columns of six gilt-bronze characters in lishu (clerical script), within spandrels of painted gilt scrollwork. The frames are of complex construction, with raised inner and outer bands in reddish-brown lacquer with gilt painted formal borders, linked across a recessed intermediate zone by four stylized bats between pierced brackets. Each has a pierced bronze ruyi shaped bracket for suspension.

Provenance:
Sotheby’s Paris, 14 June 2007, lot 77

The texts are taken from the preface to the Liangdu Fu 兩都賦 (The Rhapsody of the Two Capitals), by the Eastern Han historian and poet Ban Gu 班固 (32-92), known particularly for his involvement in the compiling of the Han Shu (Book of Han). These four panels represent two pairs of contiguous texts, with a gap of eighteen characters in between the pairs, suggesting that there was at least one other panel in the set, and probably three, or even more if the whole text of the preface of the Liangdu Fu was to be transcribed.

The Qianlong emperor had a deep appreciation for the work of Ban Gu. The emperor’s collection of paintings and calligraphy, compiled over a period of seventy-four years, was called the Shiqu Baoji 石渠寳笈 (The Precious Book-box of the Stone Conduit), a name which alludes directly to the Shiqu Ge 石渠閣 (Pavilion of the Stone Conduit), the imperial library of the Western Han dynasty, used as a place for discussion of the classics. Ban Gu refers to the Shiqu Ge in the Liangdu Fu.

Dimensions: Height of each: 66 cm, 25 ¾ inches. Width: 42 cm, 16 ½ inches

Date: Early Qing dynasty (1644-1912), 17th/18th century

Stock No. 1433

Price: On Request