- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Chinese diptych showing scenes of steatite figures set onto painted silk landscape [.1], with two removal panels showing similar scenes [.2-.3].
- Long description
- Chinese diptych comprising a hinged wood frame covered in patterned silk which opens to reveal two scenes composed of carved and painted steatite figures set onto an inner painted silk landscape. These scenes are on two sliding panels which can be removed to reveal similar scenes beneath. The panels in the main frame [1886.1.76.1] depict on the left: a scholar's garden study, tea laid out bottom left, scholar's desk, books and writing materials set right middle, a bird in background and a pile of clothes in foreground. On the right: a garden scene with a peacock in a gateway and a pair of shoes in the foreground. The two removable panels depict four figures, possibly representing a scholar, a monk and two maids, with a stork, house and tree in the background [1886.1.76.2] and a traveller in a garden near the entrance of a house [1886.1.76.3]. Several steatite figures or objects are missing from each panel.
- Geographical reference
- Date / Period
- Date made: On or before 1882
- Date collected
- ?On or before 1882
- Acquisition information
- Transferred: 04/03/1886
- Materials and processes
- Material Steatite Stone, Material Silk Textile Animal, Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Carpentered, Process Woven, Process Painted
- Dimensions
- Height x Width x Depth: [.1] when closed 255 x 195 x 35 mm box, Height x Width x Depth: [.1] when open 255 x 395 x 18 mm, Height x Width 240 x 195 mm [.2] and [.3]
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1886.1.76
Search terms: Box, Figure, Picture and Graphic Art, Carving, Painting, Bird Figure