WORK FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY - Lot 262

WORK FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY IN THE STYLE OF (FUTURE) PRODUCTIONS BY PERRET AND VIBERT - MAISON DES BAMBOUS "Chinoiseries - Scenes from the novel Les Trois Royaumes; written in the 14th century based on a 3rd-century text". Exceptional historizing screen with 5 articulated leaves on casters. The frame is made of bamboo; the lower parts and pediments with geometric motifs are also made of assembled bamboo pieces. The side panels and upper entablature feature embedded cartouches with palmettes. Each leaf features a panel decorated with a scene, skilfully embroidered with colored woollen threads in cross-stitch, chain-stitch and throw-stitch, on a linen or cotton background evocative of basketry; Westernized Chinese characters enrich two of the five panels, and some headpieces feature sewn-on decorative cabochons. The back of each panel is stretched with silk. Each leaf: 192 x 69.5 cm. Total dimensions of the screen: 192 x 348 cm. The decorative panels of this folding screen are in exceptional condition, with the exception of the silk-stretched backs, which show some tears and missing pieces. chinoiserie under the Second Empire and at the end of the 19th century The arts of the Far East have always fascinated the West - so much so that, in parallel with their discovery, a European interpretation of these exotic objects fantasized by Western artists and craftsmen soon appeared. These decorative objects, with their aesthetics inspired by a so-called "Chinese" style - in reality marked by motifs and symbols from East Asia, and more particularly China and Japan - were called chinoiseries. Highly appreciated in the 17th and 18th centuries, they enjoyed a new boom at the end of the 19th century, under the Second Empire. The appeal of Chinese objects can be traced back to Antiquity and the discovery of silks, before continuing under the aegis of the creation of trade routes between Venice and China in the 13th century - which amplified European taste for Asian objects and gave rise to the first reinterpretations and appropriations of their luxurious products, such as silk and porcelain. The taste for Asia intensified in the centuries that followed, with the development of diplomatic and cultural relations between the two continents, which only strengthened Far Eastern object collecting and the influence between the arts. This Asian dream, characterized by exotic motifs, rich imagery, asymmetrical forms and symbols foreign to the West, was quickly adapted, copied and hybridized by artists. Profoundly linked to the 17th and 18th centuries and the Rococo movement, chinoiseries took root throughout Europe - and never really disappeared, despite the counterpoint of the neoclassical trend. With the Second Empire, a certain oriental fashion began to revive, and chinoiserie once again found its place in the exotic aesthetic developed under the Napoleon III style. A major period in the development of foreign and colonial policies, not least towards Asia, the Second Empire was an era marked by the massive import of objects from faraway lands and, unsurprisingly, by the flourishing of pseudo-Chinese styles in the arts. The end of the 19th century was a major moment in the history of collecting and exhibiting Asian objects - a movement guided by Empress Eugenie herself. The Napoleon III style was partly inspired by this, giving rise to furniture in bamboo or exotic wood, carved in the Far Eastern style, or preciously lacquered in the Chinese taste; textile art was no exception to this rule and these influences, integrating itself into numerous decorations designed in the Far Eastern taste.