AN EXTREMELY RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL 'LANDSCAPE' PANEL MING DYNASTY, JIAJING – WANLI PERIOD |

of rectangular form, brilliantly enamelled with an idyllic landscape scene accentuated with several figures portrayed engaging in different activities, some depicted seated in a pavilion, others standing outside a courtyard, the scenery dramatically rendered with undulating waves and jagged boulders, further adorned with a waterfall gushing forth and forming ruyi-shaped foam, all enclosed within a turquoise-ground border enclosing sinuous dragons and lotus blooms, wood frame

Cloisonne enamel landscape panels of this large size, brilliantly decorated with a wondrous landscape scene in multi-coloured enamels, are extremely rare. The counterpart to this panel in the Uldry collection, enamelled with a scene of a scholar in a pavilion within a similarly luxuriant landscape, and similarly framed by a border of writhing dragons, is illustrated in Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989, cat. no. 151, dated to the first half of the 17th century. The closest related example sold at auction is a smaller (47 cm long) ‘landscape’ panel from the Alfred Morrison collection and the Fonthill Heirlooms, sold at Christie’s London, 18th October 1971, lot 119, and again at Parke Bernet galleries, 17th January 1976, lot 361.

The texture of the enamelling and precise decorative techniques, notably the undulating waves in the gilt cloisons that frame the lake and contours of the landscape, closely relate to that on the famous 17th century ‘Jardinere Tissot’, which was in the Tissot, Helleu and David-Weill collections, and now preserved in the Musée des Art Decoratifs, Paris, illustrated in Beatrice Quette, ed., Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, cat. no. 160, and on the cover.

The rendition of the dragons depicted writhing around the edges of the landscape panel closely relate to those on a Jiajing reign-marked ‘dragon’ dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 46. This suggests that the current panel could date to as early as the Jiajing period.