? A pair of Chinese Qing dynasty 'Pien Mien' ivory, kingfish...

Hammer

£3,500

? A pair of Chinese Qing dynasty 'Pien Mien' ivory, kingfisher feather and silk embroidered circular hand screens / fans, circa 1840, of a type used by the ladies of the Imperial Court during the summer time, each is brightly and boldly applied to one side with raised birds of paradise on branches, butterflies and flowers made using principally turquoise Kingfisher feathers all applied to a gold foil ground, verso with delicately embroidered floral designs, all set within an embroidered circular frame with carved ivory handles, the terminals shaped and carved as stylised bats, 17cm wide (2), note: a group of comparable fans are in the Imperial Palace, Beijing, illustrated in Classics of Forbidden City 'Life in the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty' ISBN 978-7-80047-655-6 by the Forbidden City publishing house, edited by Wang Shuqing and Lu Yanzhen, Beijing 2007, pl.212, see also N.J.Irons, Fans of Imperial China, Hong Kong, 1982, p.227, for a kingfisher-decorated fan of similar type, where he describes them as Pien-mien fans, a similar silk screen fan with applied designs of feather inlay, dated circa 1850 is illustrated by C.L.Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Suffolk, 1997, pl.202 (ex collection of the Peabody Museum of Salem)