Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Nov 27, 2010 (12:59 AM)
Value depends greatly on condition. Signed paintings by well-known artists bring premiums at auction, as might be expected.
Some works by Zhou Peichun have sold at major international auction houses in recent years for upwards of a thousand US dollars. You might wish to check eBay or websites like trocadero.com for current prices using 'pith painting' and 'trade painting' as your keywords.
If you wish to get seriously into the subject of these paintings you couldn't do better than to begin by reading about George Chinnery, an English artist who arrived in China during the reign of the Daoguang emperor (1821-50) and as artist and art teacher went on to have great influence on the direction of China trade paintings. Wikipedia.org has an article about him.
I've picked up some nice pith paintings on eBay and also had good luck at estate liquidations, the latter of which venues was where I found the painting here for less than a hundred dollars. It had a title pasted on, reading 'Ascension to the Throne of the Xuantong Emperor' (Xuantong Deng Tai). The original frame was lined inside the back by a Chinese newspaper printed in Shanghai and dated August 22, 1934, which could be about the time the picture was painted.
Best regards,
Bill H.
- Mac - Jan 04, 2011 (01:18 PM)