Coromandel Screen

Coromandel screen, ebony folding screen with panels of incised black lacquer, often painted gold or other colours and frequently decorated by the application of jade and other semiprecious stones, shell, or porcelain. These screens, having as many as 12 leaves, were of considerable size. Scenes of Chinese life or landscape were typical, but European hunting or nautical scenes were also popular. Although these screens were probably made in northern or central China during the Kangxi period (1661–1722) of the Qing dynasty, they received their name from India’s Coromandel coast, where they were transshipped to Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by merchants of the English and French East India companies. Dutch traders also carried these screens from Bantam in Java, and in early accounts they were frequently called Bantam screens as well as Coromandel screens. In the 18th century many of the imported screens were cut up to make panels for the decoration of various kinds of cabinet furniture.