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A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 1
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 2
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 3
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 4
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 5
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 6
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 7
A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels Late 18th/early 19th century image 8
Lot 34TP

A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels
Late 18th/early 19th century

Fine Decorative Arts
1 July 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£10,000 - £15,000

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A set of five Chinese export painted landscape wallpaper panels

Late 18th/early 19th century
Depicting various flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs including tree peonies, camellias and pomegranates, the branches supporting numerous colourful exotic birds including parakeets and other songbirds, the naturalistic rockwork and foliate ground with various flowering shrubs, a long-tailed pheasants and quails, all reserved on a drab ground with further flying birds and scattered butterflies and insects, comprising a set of three continuous panels and two other matching separate panels, all later mounted within giltwood moulded rectangular frames 204cm high, 68cm wide, 4.5cm deep

Footnotes

Chinese wallpapers appeared for sale in Europe in the late 17th century as part of the larger trade in Chinese artefacts such as lacquer, porcelain and silks. Imported by the East India and Dutch East India companies these hand-painted papers, and the European 'chinoiserie' papers that they inspired set a fashion that endured throughout the 18th century into the 19th century and then again periodically in the late 19th and early 20th century centuries.

Most of the great houses of Europe had at least one room decorated with a Chinese paper, either original or imitation and by the end of the 18th century they could be found in more modest houses. Although many of the earlier papers were used in state reception or bedrooms they were eventually considered equally suitable for more 'feminine' rooms such as private chambers, boudoirs and bedrooms.

Usually supplied in sets of 24 or 40 pieces the Chinese papers were often hung to form continuous murals decoration around the room and featured exotic subject matter which can be divided into three main categories - scenes of Chinese life and landscapes often depicting daily life and industry, flowering trees populated with birds, butterflies and insects and a hybrid form of the flowering tree papers also incorporating figures and sometimes pagodas and temples. The papers differed to those available made in Europe with their rich hand-painted colours and fine detail. However, their cost in comparison to locally-made wallpapers meant that they were purchased and hung by the wealthy. As such they were highly prized furnishings so were often removed and rehung when necessary.

Interestingly the Chinese did not use painted wallpapers preferring plain papers. However, it was Chinese practice particularly in the trading ports of Canton and Macao to paste painted pictorial papers over windows. As such it could be that these papers were admired by European merchants which led the Chinese to produce similar decorations for export.

As Chinese papers were relatively expensive and orders for special designs or colourways could take upwards to two years to be delivered it was not surprising then that European manufacturers began to produced imitations.

Additional information

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