A pair of large Chinese lacquered jade and hardstone inlaid 'trompe l'oeil' display cabinet panels, late Qing dynasty, formed as a pair of rosewood display shelves with pierced ivory borders housing carved 'precious' vessels with ivory and carved wood stands including a bowl of fruit, a vase of flowers, a ruyi sceptre and ritual vessels, 89x66cm, fitted silk lined cases

Ivory exemption acquired. Reference number: R1WZBWAA.

清中期 紫檀框黃漆地百寶嵌博古圖掛屏一對

Note: As is recorded in Jianyangcongbi《尖陽叢筆》, a Qing dynasty book written by Wuqian (吳騫), Zhouzhu (周柱) was the first person in late Ming or Early Qing dynasty to invent the technique of inlaying lacquer panels with Hundred Precious Materials (百寶嵌) such as jade, jadeite, pearls, corals, and ivory (其法以金、銀、寶石、珍珠、珊瑚、碧玉、翡翠……象牙……嵌於檀、梨、漆器之上……五色陸離，難以形容，真古以來未有之奇玩也). Such impressive inlaid design panels bespeak of the High Qing scholarly sensibility, and were popular among members of the Imperial household, especially during the reigns of Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong. This can be seen in the detail of similarly inlaid doors of an imperial huanghuali cabinet in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Hu Desheng in Ming Qing gong ting jia ju da guan, vol. II, Beijing, 2006, pp. 554-5.

Apart from the Hundred Previous Materials, each of the pairs of panels depict the theme of Hundred Antiques (博古), a collection of emblematic forms comprising ruyi handles, scholars objects, and archaic vessels. A pair of panels with similar shape, colour scheme, material, inlaid technique and theme is now exhibited in the Sui'an room (隨安室) in the Yangxindian (養心殿), which had been the bedroom of the Qing emperors in the Forbidden city since Qianlong emperor. Chinese collectors appreciation of this design continues until this day.