The 200-Year-Old Hat Stand Used as a Lamp

this very fascinating object was bought from a country house sale in the 1950s it was kept in a house in the north of Wales for over 50 years it was used as a lamp all that time in fetch this is actually a hat stand it's nearly 200 years old the piece dates to the Darwin period were looking at the early part of the 19th century it's very rare to see it in porcelain form this piece gives us a little glimpse into the opulence of imperial court life in the Ching dynasty in the diagram period that type of hat that you wear is very important because it signifies the rank or the status so you wouldn't just put beautiful elaborate hat that is important for your personal status lying around you will display on a light hat stand like this one and this has that was obviously made for someone extremely important probably for the Don Juan Emperor himself around the top of the piece you can see these reticulated holes you put some sort of fragrant material inside and that aroma that fragrance would come out through these panels and then you would put the hat or headdress over that it's also a really beautiful work of art in its own right so if you look at the top of the piece we have many colorful dragons around it it's not only showcasing the amount of colors that the craftsman could achieve at the time but it's also a symbol for divine power divine rule there are these bats as well bats have a significant meaning in Chinese history because the word for bat sounds like the word for blessings or happiness and you can see on the piece that the globular top where the dragons and the bats are depicted it rises from these lotus petals which is quite dramatic and really beautiful as well to think back of what they achieved in the 19th century under imperial patronage it's really amazing and the invention of these new colors and these beautiful places and enamels it really exemplifies the technical abilities of the craftsmen at the time and the significance of it as an imperial chinese piece is really special you

Channel: Christie's

Views: 83,694

Rating: 4.9074302 out of 5

Keywords: Christie's, auctions, auction house, art auction, art, Chinese, Porcelain

Id: U5aYPqHeHq4

Length: 3min 27sec (207 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/leeyuuh]

When China first began to grow economically, a completely legitimate way to get rich was to go around antique shops or act as an appraiser for interested sellers, buy the antique for a few thousand, then resell it for tens, hundreds, and in rare cases, millions, assuming you had a good enough background in art and art history to recognize the value.