Extremely rare carved agarwood screen, chenxiangmu

Extremely rare screen in carved agarwood, chenxiangmu, deeply carved in high relief with five-clawed dragons chasing the sacred pearl through the clouds, it features a circular mirror in the center of the front panel, a central dragon head in the upper part and two eyelets on either side. As you approach, you can see two scenes, one an exterior landscape, the second an interior scene featuring furniture and court figures. Each of the two scenes is formed by the superimposition of different planes seen in succession thanks to an ingenious play of mirrors.

On the reverse side, a row of eight drawers in the middle, the front of which is possibly made of Zitan wood. On either side of this column, the various planes are aligned, and at the top, a glass cover decorated with gold dragons on a black background conceals the mirror system that allows the complete scene to be glimpsed through each of the eyelets.

Agarwood, also known as bois d’aloès, calambac in French and chenxiangmu (沉香木) in Chinese, is a resin that takes a particularly long time to produce. Its fragrant properties make it a highly prized material for incense wood, and it is also much sought-after in Asian medicine for its supposed healing virtues. This rare material was also used to produce objects for scholars, whose pleasant scent and the fact that the wood is immune to external aggression from termites and other parasites make it particularly valuable. However, it was very uncommon for it to be used to produce furniture of such imposing dimensions.
As production is low, the size of the pieces collected is generally quite small, so objects made from Chenxiangmu are very often made from an assembly of several elements (such is the case for the present screen).

More than a simple table screen in its own right, such as the one presented by Sotheby’s Paris on December 12, 2017 (lot 64), we are here in the presence of the very essence of the Chinese imperial object of the Qianlong period. Indeed, the carving motifs representing dragons are of impeccable quality and perfectly equivalent to classic imperial shaped objects in zitan wood. What’s more, the periscope system and the play of mirrors enabling a scene to be viewed by juxtaposing different decorated elements is a system that was developed through cultural exchanges between China and the West. These exchanges were fostered by the presence of Jesuit monks who worked at the imperial court during the Qing dynasty in the 18th century, as in the case of the fountain in the Summer Palace, which features an innovative hydraulic system.

Provenance:
Private collection (Chateau in South-West France). Family tradition, brought to France by their collateral ascendant G.D., who served in the colonial infantry in Cochinchina and China between 1903 and 1919.

Parallels:
For an inferior comparison in terms of carving motif (pavilion decor and figures in contrast to the imperial dragons adorning the present screen) see Poly International sale in Beijing, December 8, 2018, lot 5450.

Height: 67 cm
Width: 77cm
Depth: 21 cm

Mirror broken, some parts missing.