AN INDO-PORTUGUESE BLACK, GILT AND RED-JAPANNED FOUR-FOLD SCREEN

This richly decorated screen - rare in its depiction of Portuguese 'nabobs' - is almost identical to two sold in recent years at Christie's: the first from the Byng Collection at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire (8 July 1993, lot 64, £25,300); the second anonymously (4 March 2004, lot 131, £25,095). All three screens share the same design, though differ in their borders - whilst the border of the present screen is finished only on one end, the Byng screen is finished on all sides and the other example is not finished on either end. This could imply that the three together originally formed part of a larger group of screens which have since have been separated.