I WONDER whether there will be a fenghuang to be found in the Chinese exhibitions at Asian Art in London (AAL), although I am not sure whether to hope so or not. This highly coloured creature—the ho-ho bird of the Japanese—is sometimes misleadingly called a Chinese phoenix, although, unlike the European version, more than one can exist at a time. Fenghuang are deemed the most honourable of birds because they eat no living thing, but, and this is what could make them inappropriate at the moment, they only appear in times of peace and prosperity.
I wrote about them in my 1998 report of the first Asian Art Week, illustrated by a Ming silk embroidery. Then, another textile dealer Jacqueline Simcox was exhibiting in Dover Street; this year, she has taken space around the corner at Shapero Rare Books, 106, New Bond Street, W1, again showing Ming silk textiles from the early 15th to the early 17th cen- tury, together with a small group of 19th-century court costumes.
Twelve years ago, Eskenazi of Clifford Street, W1, celebrated the firm’s 50th anniversary with an exhibition of 12 Chinese masterworks; it is now 50 years since its first exhibition, to be marked this time by a display of just five masterpieces on loan from a private family collection, all of which were acquired through the gallery over the past decades.
Denne historien er fra October 26, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 26, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
