A fine and rare embroidered five-panel throne-Back Screen Qing dynasty, Qianlong period

the five sumptuous silk embroidered panels delicately stitched with a continuous scene depicting the Immortals on Mount Kunlun celebrating the Peach Festival, the Immortals and attendants, exquisitely rendered, with naturalistic expressions and movements, dressed in flowing robes of multiples colors and textures, all situated along a winding path set with craggy rockwork at the foreground, the rocks with light-blue painted stippling to depict mineral encrustation; on the left panel Xi Wangmu enters riding a qilin and surrounded by her attendants, the following panel with a peach tree growing on a precipice, above a group waiting in anticipation as an attendant in the tree picks and throws the fruits into a basket suspending from a long stick, the central panel featuring Shoulao, his ruyi scepter in hand, astride his deer accented with beautiful dark spots, in the near distance three Immortals with their two attendants gather on a terrace and gaze contemplatively over the Turquoise Pond, the following two panels featuring four Immortals atop their animal vehicles as Lan Caihe stands upon an inlet, holding her flower basket, each panel with towering or horizontally meandering trees, the foliage depicted in a myriad of geometric forms, with soaring majestic cliffs punctuated with blue peaks rising above the mist enshrouded timberline, all reserved against an originally Imperial yellow ground, the panels of graduated length and width, each within hongmu frames set in a hongmu base, the scalloped top section of the frame and the waisted section of the base pierced and carved with stylized bats and scrolling foliage, glazed, the reverse of the screens lined with yellow brocade (6)

Collection of Leslie Bratton and Richard Magill Andrews, Jr., Tokyo and Norway Island, British Columbia (acquired prior to 1941).
The Estate of Leslie Magill Andrews, Tokyo and Norway Island, British Columbia.
Thereafter with the present owner.

Leslie Magill Andrews was born in Tokyo to Leslie Bratton Andrews and Richard Magill Andrews, Jr. Her maternal grandfather was Colonel Rufus S. Bratton, Chief of the Far Eastern Section of the Intelligence Branch of the Military Intelligence Division (G-2) in the U.S. War Department, and was instrumental in deciphering the transcripts from the Japanese government to the Japanese ambassador on December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Her paternal great-grandfather, William Henry Andrews, was appointed American Consul to Hankow (modern day Wuhan) in 1890. Her paternal grandfather, Richard Magill Andrews, Sr., was an American trained mining engineer raised in Japan. The family company, Andrews & George, imported machinery from the U.S. into Japan and it is purported that it imported the first motor vehicle into Japan. The family traveled throughout Asia and collected numerous works of art, and the present screen was brought from Japan when the family moved to Canada in 1941.

The panels, though very faded, are in very good condition overall. There are some losses to the top layers of the silk used to form the tree trunks on the left screen. Some of hair on the figures with losses to the top embroidery, revealing the black painted enhancements (original) below. Missing the two side brackets on the far frames. The left two panels missing pegs.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The exquisite stitch embroidery and the original Imperial yellow color of the ground (now faded) reflect the luxurious standards achieved by Imperial order during the Qianlong period. It was under the Emperor's patronage that the silk industry reached its artistic zenith. Decorative fabrics were created for conspicuous display by the Qing court and included not only impressive items such as the present throne screen, but also smaller textile accents for thrones, beds and stools. It is rare to find a screen with Imperial-quality silk panels, though a twelve-panel Imperial kesi example with a trompe d'oeil  design, attributed to the Qianlong period, was sold at Christie's New York, 30th March 2005, lot 220.

The graduated sizes of the panels -- the central panel being the tallest and widest -- is a characteristic of Imperial screens. See the gilt-decorated landscape screen attributed to the Yongzheng period, removed from Beijing in 1900 and formerly in the collection of General Leopold Davout d'Auerstaedt, France, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2007, lot 1309. Perhaps the grandest example is one attributed to the Yongzheng period: a nine-panel screen featuring nine embroidered dragons stitched in gold thread in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II): The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 198. The black lacquered frame also features a reticulated top edge, which gently slopes from the center to the side panels.

Though the hongmu frames are of a later date than the panels, they are well-executed and grand. Their form is identical to a petit-point gauze five-panel screen in the Qing Court collection and attributed to the Yongzheng to Qianlong periods (op.cit. pl. 200).

The classic Daoist theme of the Peach Festival on Mount Kunlun, the mythical realm of the Immortals where the celestial and earthly converge, was a popular subject in the fine and decorative arts of China. The Immortals gather to celebrate the birthday of Xi Wangmu ('Queen Mother of the West'), which is marked by the ripening of the peaches of immortality every 3,000 years. See a kesi tapestry panel depicting this subject, attributed to the late 18th century, illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen, Imperial Silks: Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 2000, vol. II, pl. 496, pp. 1002-1003; and another exceptional kesi example in The Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated in Steven Little and Shawn Eichman, Taoism and the Arts of China, Chicago, 2000, pl. 118.

Consider the magnificent rendering of the rocks and mountains, which is very similar to a kesi handscroll illustrating the 500 Lohan, with two palace inventory seals datable to the Qianlong emperor's 70th and 80th years, (Jacobsen, op.cit., pl. 537, pp. 1074-1075). The rocks in this handscroll and in the present screen each follow the same principles of composition, whereby the formations grow upward from the bottom of the panels and create a craggy foreground allowing the figures to meander among a world suggestive of earthly rocks and heavenly peaks.

The inspiration for the color of the rocks and mountains can be traced to landscapes of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, known for the 'blue and green' style, achieved using intense mineral pigments. The light-blue stippling added in pigment onto the shaded blues of the rocks on the present screen is reminiscent of this style. See a late 14th century handscroll, Mountains of the Immortals, by Chen Ruyan in The Cleveland Museum of Art, which is in the style of this school of painting and features towering rocks executed in azurite and malachite pigment, illustrated in Litte and Eichman op.cit., pl. 144, pp. 368-369.