About This Work

This central fragment of an ornamental beam represents Five Daoist Immortals
displaying a parchment with the Eight Trigrams of the ancient Chinese divination text
Yi Jing (易經) and in the center the Yin Yang.
The figures on the far sides carry two of the typical Daoist attributes:
the Fly-whisk and the Double-gourd.

This set of Antique Architectural Fittings is the ornamental ensemble of a
Traditional Chinese Courtyard House (SiHeYuan) located 20 km from the
urban center of Kunming, Yunnan Province.
Given the difficulty of establishing the history of the property prior to 1949,
the Bureau of Cultural Relics and Antiques of Yunnan Province
determined that according to the location, style and great artistic value of its carvings
it may have belonged to a high ranking official and landlord of the late Qing Dynasty, (c.1870).

This lot also includes several pieces of an earlier age, mid-Qing Dynasty (c.1760)
that were part of a mansion near the Jinbi Street, in the center of Kunming.