Live Auction 21921The Robin and Rupert Hambro Collection
A SET OF TWENTY ETCHINGS OF THE EUROPEAN PALACES, PAVILIONS AND GARDENS IN THE IMPERIAL GROUNDS OF YUANMINGYUAN, THE OLD SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING
Lot 113

A SET OF TWENTY ETCHINGS OF THE EUROPEAN PALACES, PAVILIONS AND GARDENS IN THE IMPERIAL GROUNDS OF YUANMINGYUAN, THE OLD SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING

AFTER YI LANTAI (FL. 1749-1786), PRINTED 1977

Closed8 June 2023

Price Realised

GBP 23,940

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A SET OF TWENTY ETCHINGS OF THE EUROPEAN PALACES, PAVILIONS AND GARDENS IN THE IMPERIAL GROUNDS OF YUANMINGYUAN, THE OLD SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING
AFTER YI LANTAI (FL. 1749-1786), PRINTED 1977
five engravings in gold-painted and ebonised frames, fifteen engravings in a folio box
Etching: 20 x 34 3/4 in. (50.8 x 88.2 cm.)
Paper: 23 3/4 x 37 1/2 in. (60.4 x 95.2 cm.)

Specialist note


The original etchings were created for the Qianlong Emperor between 1783 and 1786 by Yi Lantai, who trained under the Jesuit missionary to the Chinese court, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766; also known as Lang Shining). The Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) had commissioned Castiglione to design and lay out the gardens and palaces according to the European model within the old Summer Palace Yu Yuan north of Beijing. The buildings and gardens were constructed there from 1737-1766.
Two hundred copies of the original copperplate engravings were made and given to imperial relatives, high officials and other guests; an album comprising one of these original 18th-century copies is now preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Acc. no. 29452:13).