Beschreibung:

Chinese Ancestor Portraits. A pair of Chinese ancestor portraits, circa 1800-1850, one depicting a Ming dynasty official in red robes, cranes on sash, wide sleeves, elaborate headdress and earrings, the other portraying a Qing dynasty official in blue robes decorated with 3-clawed dragons and with horse hoof shaped cuffs on narrow sleeves, also wearing a black fur-lined winter overcoat with a Mandarin square featuring a phoenix, Manchurian hat, winged collar, and white-soled boots, each figure seated on a draped wooden chair, gouache on silk, laid onto scrolls of (very brittle) backing paper, wooden batons at each end, Ming figure scroll with A1928 on paper label at foot and partial silk tying ribbon, Qing figure with two complete horizontal splits across top and bottom of scroll (not affecting image), Ming figure with three complete horizontal splits, as above, and also an extensive (though partial), split across centre of image, plus a couple of short closed edge tears to bottom of silk background, each image size 63.5 x 33.5 cm (25 x 13 1/4 ins), each scroll approximately 105.5 x 35.5 cm (41 1/2 x 14 ins) (Quantity: 2) Provenance: James Henry Johns (5 February 1900-13 January 1987). James Johns was born in China (possibly Shanghai) and worked for either Butterfield and Swire shipping agents or the trading company Jardines. Based in Shanghai, with a brief interlude in the Far East (Australia and Borneo), Johns was imprisoned in 1942 by the Japanese in Shanghai (Haiphong Road camp), and later presumably moved along with other inmates to Fengtai, near Peking, before being released at the end of the war. He eventually returned to England and died in Oxford in 1987. The present owner obtained these works from James Johns. Two handsome but fragile Chinese ancestor scroll portraits that will require conservation before display is possible.