A PAIR OF CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE-PAINTED MIRRORS
Lot 605

A PAIR OF CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE-PAINTED MIRRORS

QING DYNASTY, LATE 18TH CENTURY

Closed23 October 2022

Price Realised

USD 178,920

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A PAIR OF CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE-PAINTED MIRRORS
QING DYNASTY, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Each depicting a pheasant perched on rocks amidst flowering branches with two smaller birds, in later giltwood frames, with printed and inscribed Ann and Gordon Getty Collection inventory label
27 1/2 in. (70 cm.) high, 14 1/4 in. (36.5 cm.) wide

Acquired from Jeremy Ltd., London by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1982.

Specialist note

The reverse painted pheasant subjects of the present pair of of mirrors relate closely to those seen in the upper part of two tall pier glasses from the yellow and red drawing rooms of the Chinese pavilion at the royal palace of Drottningholm in Stockholm, Sweden. They, too, present a silver pheasant and a red pheasant, respectively, among flowering peonies and blue and grey colored rocks (T. Audric, Chinese Reverse Glass Painting, 1720-1820, Thesis, 2020, pp. 34-35). The similarities of the figures in the present lot and the mirrors at Drottningholm suggest they may have originated in the same Chinese workshop.