A very fine quality and large-sized eighteenth-century Chinese export reverse-painted mirror, depicting a lady and child in a pavilion hung with pink silk curtains, within a fretwork-carved giltwood frame.

During the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, England was captivated by a fascination with the Orient. The increase in importations of Chinese goods following the 1663 Bullion Act inaugurated a craze for all things Oriental and thereafter a booming export trade in China, supported by the East India Company, supplied an abundance of goods for English consumers desiring a taste of the Orient.

Amongst the myriad export wares such as lacquer and porcelain, Chinese mirror paintings such as the present example were some of the most highly prized pieces of Chinese export art. Their brilliant colours enlivened Western interiors and their depictions of mystical scenes of pagodas and exotic animals and flora provided both an outlet for fantasy and relief to the rigidness of the classical design.

The subjects of these works also attracted English buyers. In the case of the present example, a finely dressed lady seated in a silk-hung pavilion conveys all the aristocratic ease and grace that appealed to English buyers’ noble sensibility.

In addition to this, the quality of these paintings, exemplified by the exceptional detail work of the present example, was also greatly revered and in respects was unlike anything produced in Europe at the time.