END OF THE REIGN OF EMPEROR MINH MANG - REIGN OF EMPEROR THI - Lot 38

END OF THE REIGN OF EMPEROR MINH MANG - REIGN OF EMPEROR THIEU-TRI (1840-1847). Rare suite of three framed glass fixtures decorated with Greek shelves called "cao de ky" or "top and bottom", decorated with fruit bowls and scholar's objects. The central decoration is encircled by a frieze of Greciques (hoi van motif) adorned with flowers and foliage. The three pieces are framed in red and gold lacquered wood (one repatinated with bronzine), the upper part with two bronze hooks decorated with bats. Vietnam, work by the Hué workshops for the imperial palace or mausoleum, first half of the 19th century. Dimensions with frame: 51.2x67.6 cm and 51.5x68 cm. Dimensions unframed: 41.5x58 cm. Provenance: Private collection, former Maison Denis-Frères collection. First introduced to China by the Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), these paintings under glass, sometimes made on silver mirrors imported from Europe, spread rapidly throughout the Indochinese peninsula. By the end of the 18th century, they were commonplace in the ornamentation of court palaces, and were widely used in the decor of the imperial palace of Hué as soon as it was built. The iconography of the three glass mountings presented here is typical of Annamite art. The Greek shelf motif is referenced by Louis Cadière in L'Art à Hué, p.61, with a reproduction on p.62. These shelves filled with fruit and precious crockery were not only of decorative interest, but also referred to the traditional deposit of offerings on ancestral altars. The motif was widely used in imperial monuments, including mausoleum decorations (see the woodwork of the Hien Duc door in the mausoleum of H.M. Emperor Minh Mang). For similar examples, see those currently on display in the Mausoleum of H.M. Emperor Thieu Tri in Hué.