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Vintage Framed Scroll - Oriental Magpie-Robin - $30 (Seattle)
condition:
good
size / dimensions:
14"x38"
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Age and history uncertain; frame 37.5” x 13.5”, scroll 28.5” x 9.75”; silk has cracks and cockling
Found at an estate sale, this interesting vintage or perhaps antique 28.5” x 9.75” framed hand-painted Oriental scroll is framed under glass in a 37.5” x 13.5” wood frame. Signed with a chop, it shows an Oriental Magpie-Robin and cherry blossoms. This scroll is unusual in that it has definite damage in the form of cracks in the silk as well extensive cockling (see photos). It appears to me to have been careful preserved to restore the damage as much as possible. The second photo shows a yardstick for scale.
As is unfortunately all too often the case at estate sales, I wasn't able to learn anything about the artist or about the age and history of this interesting scroll, which to me gives the appearance of being a carefully preserved and restored antique one. The bird, an Oriental Magpie-Robin, Copsychus saularis, is found throughout Southeast Asia, including in southern China but not in South Korea or Japan, suggesting that this could be a Chinese scroll rather than a Japanese one.
This unusual scroll has been irregularly trimmed at the top and bottom. The material, which I believe to be silk, is toned due to age. The pronounced cockling or rippling may be due to the watercolor paints used for the painting or perhaps due to later exposure to moisture. How the numerous cracks occurred I’m not sure but parts of the scroll appear to me to have been painstakingly reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle. Vertical scrolls like this are usually unrolled and hung on walls but after being restored this one has been carefully protected with glass.
This framed scroll weighs 5 lbs. 6 oz.