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DALI MARBLE DREAMSTONE PANELS, SET OF 4 browse these categories for related items... Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Asian: Chinese: Scholar Art: Pre 1930: item # 626346 Please refer to our stock # d-2 when inquiring.
Ruyi Studio San Francisco By Appointment San Francisco, CA 94131 415.990.3524 Guest Book $760.00 |
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| A GOOD SET OF FOUR CHINESE DREAMSTONE PANELS, a total of 16 framed landscape scenes in Dali marble (limestone) resembling scholary Chinese brush paintings in black ink with very subtle variations in brown, dark green, grey and occasional suffusions of yellow-orange and red. The relationship of dreamstone panels to the connoiseurship of Chinese scholar’s rocks (gongshi) and other nature-derived Chinese literati art forms should be immediately apparent. There are four scenes per frame which tend to alternate between literal and painterly landscapes to the almost abstract and merely suggestive. Panels may be rearranged for different effect. The shape of the frames within each panel are derived from Chinese architecture and mimic portals to fantastic gardens or outdoor landscapes. The inner and outer frames are nicely bevelled and the views are not marred by the ostentatious decoration characteristic of many later dreamstone panels. The frames are constructed of nicely edged, dark-stained hardwood outer frames with similarly colored, softwood face panels The stones are in excellent condition. The wooden frames show overall wear with some nicks and dents but are in fairly good condition without significant losses of any sort. Three of the stones have tiny, painted, fragmentary inscriptions in black and red pigment which suggests that these stones may have been part of a larger panel at one time. Prized Dali marble stones were cherished and reframing them to suit different tastes and formats seems to have been commonplace. This traditional format of four vertical panels, each with multiple portals, probably does not predate the 18th C. Chien-lung period, although these panels are later, approximately 75 to 100 years old. See Classic Chinese Furniture of the Qing Dynasty (Tian Jiaqing) for a set of dreamstones in this type of format. Dimensions: each panel is approximately 46-1/2 inches long (including the traditional and convenient 2” high brass mounting hooks) and 10-1/2 inches in width. The panels can be hung as a full set–ideally with approximately 1-1/2” to 2” space between each panel–in an area at least 52” wide. Arrangements in two separate pairs in smaller, well-defined areas are perhaps more interesting and versatile. NOTE: ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THESE PANELS WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU ON REQUEST. Notes on dreamstone panels: Written information on Chinese dreamstone panels in Western literature is minimal. Unlike Chinese scholar’s rocks which were made widely known by the publication of “Worlds Within Worlds, The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinse Scholar’s Rocks” or Kemin Hu’s “The Spirit of Gongshi,” Dali Marble Dreamstone Panels seem as yet to be relatively unknown outside of auction catalogs and occasional books on Chinese furniture. Perhaps the most extensive discussion in English can be found in the excellent catalog by Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss entitled Arts from the Scholar’s Studio in reference to items 22 and 120 of that catalog which has now become a classic reference. | ||
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