Featured ANTIQUE CHINESE TABLETOP MIRROR

In case you're wondering where I've been for the past several weeks...I've not been around mostly because I haven't bought anything worth sharing for like...the better part of two or three months!!

Well - that ends today!!...or more precisely...yesterday!

Because that's when I picked this up at my local auction house. It had an enormous estimate on it, but when the price dropped...and dropped...and dropped!...and still nobody bought it...which I was frankly amazed at...I put in a post-auction offer, and bought it!



It's a 19th-century Chinese tabletop mirror screen.

From the little research I was able to do about it, I believe the wood is "Hongmu", or Chinese blackwood (if it's something else, please tell me? I don't know bugger-all about identifying wood!). The stunning inlays are all done in mother-of-pearl.

I loved this piece from the second I saw it, and I just so badly wanted to buy it. I can't believe I was actually successful.

I'll freely admit, one of the reasons why I wanted to buy it is because it's of a style of furniture (dark woods with pearl inlays) that was particularly popular with the Peranakan Chinese of Southeast Asia, which is one of my main areas of collecting.

I can't wait to one day find a place to put this thing where it'll be a real statement piece!

 

Stunning! Thanks for sharing. Love the craftsmanship!!

 

love how well rounded (not sharp/jagged at all) the inlays are, that took extra time and effort indeed.

 

I'm amazed none of them have fallen out!

 

So sweet! Who wouldn't want to own that? (Rhetorical.)

Debora

 

Very pretty indeed and such fine beautiful detail. Great buy!

 

Gorgeous! Reminds me of Korean MOP inlay, which is also stunning.

Looks like the wood is stained, the original colour being lighter.

 

Id have bought it ! Beautiful !

 

Whoa! Somebody was asleep at the switch, and it wasn't Shangas! I'm developing a "contact high" for Peranakan pieces and would have snagged it too for no reason whatever, and with nowhere to put it.

 

I don't really have the space for it either right now, but I couldn't say no. It was just too pretty

 

Simply lovely!

 

Hard to turn down items in perfect condition that are right in your wheelhouse.

 

Now that I have the mirror home, and in a space where I can store it, I actually have the time to photograph it properly without all the stuff in the background...



For those who are curious about the dimensions, it's about 30 x 30 inches, give or take. So quite substantial!

 

Larger than I thought. It needs a nice dresser to sit on.

 

Yes! That's what all my friends have said.

"How big is it?...HOW BIG!!??"

So yeah, I need to find a decent sideboard or cabinet or something, to put it on top. Ideally something with nice dark wood, so it kinda matches.

 

https://www.carters.com.au/index.cf...pearl-inlaid-hongmu-mirror-screen-qing-dynas/

 

Yes, I saw that one, too. It's the same style, but the decorations are slightly different.

 

as256a941

they say rosewood...for this one

 

not by enuf , for me wonder if the same hand made both.....