A 36-leaf album of Chinese export paintings of Birds, Shells and Chinese life.
Canton: SunQua Studio, [1830-70]. Silk covered boards. The 12 bird images are full page, finely done with grass, rocks and flowers with shrubs or trees. Unusually, the half page images are mounted on the verso of the sheets of bird images. The half page images include collections of shells (4); women playing musical instruments (8); men sitting, a scribe, man smoking, butcher, melon, fish and vegetable sellers, and a few of the punishment images.
Oblong 4to, 8 1/4 x 13 1/4". Leaves mounted with to paper leaves with an unusual paper border with a purple circle pattern on pale background paper. Chinese style binding, opening from the back of the album. Bound in a green, gold, blue and red silk woven in a daisy pattern, which sometimes appears with a Sunqua stamp. Without background painting. The first image with some cracking but not affecting the characters, some slight browning. Most in very good condition. Item #27903
Price: $4,500.00