26 April 2008
Oriental Art and Western Art influenced by the Orient exerts an enigmatic, strong and subtle fascination which puts it into a world and class of its own. For the individual this can reveal itself when one focuses on a decorative piece or feature which previously was a familiar background everyday object such as Willow Pattern Design on crockery or the Chinese influence in European Rococo design as seen on carved antique wood fireplaces see stock nos… and 9605 the oil painted canvas screen which imitates..quite charmingly ..Japanese and Chinese lacquer work extending back into the millennium .
Another example in our present stock is 9576, a delightful small red lacquered and gilded carved antique wood chimneypiece in the George II Manner , which again imitates Oriental lacquer work. ( Currently undergoing restoration ).
The present emphasis on the Orient is nothing new…well predated by cross influences between the Portuguese, Spanish, the Dutch the French and the British from the 15th through to the 18th Centuries and was celebrated memorably in the early 19th century by the Brighton Pavilion and in the later 19th by Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado inspired by exhibitions in Victorian London.
Well chosen examples of even the most unacedemic but stylistically valid and honest quality products from or inspired by the Orient can give great pleasure and delight by the very different nature of their conception, and execution ……VIVE LA DIFFERENCE !
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8273. An interesting pair of Japanese street entertainers in spelter . They would originally have supported acrobatic children as part of their act. Japanese 19th century from the much earlier bronze originals.