(明代雕江南水景吉祥魚鹿花窗四片) This is a very unusual and rare set of four inserts from four 17th century window screens with pagodas, auspicious carps swimming among lotus and other water plants, longevity deer with magpie birds, among other motives. Such beautiful and unique carving stemmed from its geographical back ground in Jiangsu/ Zhejiang province near water with its known gardens and outdoor scenery. These inserts were first created with smaller sections of frame within the inserts, then were inserted with the larger hand-carved motives (some of them with several motifs carved together as one unit) into the frames, using the openwork of these unique objects/ motives as the latticework; unlike other styles of old Chinese latticework which often were created with smaller or tiny sections of wood in repeated shape, connected by joinery, to form the latticework in geometry or patterned shape. The former style is not uncommon among some of the older lattice style screens with some of the latticework completely hand-carved without any joinery in the whole latticework. This technique has been and is still being used today.

There are some replacements of wood in various parts of the panels where lighter color show. Since the majority of the old Chinese screen doors and windows were made with soft wood to make it easier and to save time for the carvers to freely express their skills in the more artistic way, it is common that older Chinese screen doors and windows are often repaired or damaged through time. Photos shown are two panels out of the set of four.

Dimensions: 13 1/8"w x 7/8"d x 42"h Each Panel

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