Featured Four Great Big Beautiful Chinese Wall Art

So I won these at a local auction. The first photo below is from the auction houses. Second photo is mine before cleaning. When I arrived home I proceeded to clean them up. WOW, hours later I was extremely happy with the results. From what I can search they are probably mid or a bit later 20th. Just my guest from other listings but the Chinese have been creating work such as these for a long time. The boarder is hand painted and what I really like about the inlay stone is that they are visually natural stone with just a very minimal color added. It doesn’t come across in my photos but it adds a lot of depth in person. I am only showing one photo of the back as they are all the same including the position of note.

Now I have to say with all of the similar ones I am finding online these in hand, have a great feel of quality. It appears that these court maids are consistently displayed in this format. If there is a folklore story behind them please let me know. There are cracks in several areas but nothing is missing.

45”tall (yes last photo is AI actual size perspective)
Thanks for looking.

 

that's a fricken statement !!!

very nice purchase !!!

they look like 4 star hotel lobby items .... not normal tourist items..

 

Nice find, mmarco. I agree, they are much better executed than most other stone on lacquer art I've seen.
I don't think they are court maidens, with all that hovering on clouds and lotuses and those powerful attributes. I think they might be Taoist Goddesses.
The fact that there are four, maybe for the four directions? Good for Feng Shui in the home?
I love the Qylin, showing off its new dentures.

 

Thanks komokwa and AJ, I appreciate your comments. Hotel Lobby *thumbs up* sometimes living down here in Florida I feel like a hotel with my family.

That’s a new word for me, thank you. I must say a Qylin is a far cry from a My Little Pony American unicorn version. “YIKES”

‘’Dentures, lol

 

Never notice until in the second to last photos those tiny pin holes inside every red square. What an ingenious way of keep the pattern perfect throughout.

 

Those are big and with real presence! Will you actually display them?

 

They will go up for sale, but due to my immense admiration for them they’ll be insanely priced. this of course allows me plenty of time to enjoy and…. Yes, displayed in our guest room which is Asian decor. They are going over the bed which will add a very strong focal point.

 

"a very strong focal point" indeed! Enjoy.

 

That thing on the Qylin's nose is a tuft of hair. It doesn't always stand upright like that.

 

‘interesting, I always thought of lacquer furniture as being that smooth black finished look. These are on wood(not finely sanded) that is just painted glossy jet black with an occasional tiny speck chip. Is that also considered Lacquer just by color? Asking for a friend.

 

in googling “Qylin” it state w/horn and I was just going by the back notation of frame. That said, glad to know death and magical unicorns have their differences.

 

Very pretty pieces. A lot of fine skill went into them.

 

You can tell your friend that I didn't look closely enough, painted it is.

 

The Chinese description on the back of each panel says that it shows "a palace attendant of the heavenly queen." Rather than portraying any specific persons from Chinese folklore, I believe the design is a traditional Chinese art motif.

 

very interesting, thank you. Not exactly sure I have ever heard a reference to a heavenly queen before. Is it regarding the current head queen of the emperor? or as AJ noted they are all floating on those beautiful clouds?

 

The Heavenly Queen is the title of important Goddesses in several religions in China.

 

This could be the Heavenly Queen they refer to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doumu

 

Not sure that the reference is to any deity in particular or just to a queen-like figure. The two "queens" that come to my mind first are Tian Hou 天后, the Goddess of the Sea, who was a young woman who once rescued family members who were out fishing; she received the title of “Queen of Heaven" years after her death. The second queen that comes to mind is the Queen Mother of the West, Xiwangmu 西王母. who. as the keeper of the peaches of immortality, is associated with long life. But again, there is nothing about the panels that suggests a direct connection to either of these figures.