Two 19th Century Chinese Opera Marionettes from the Chinese Beijing Opera tradition
Item Details
Two rare and masterfully handcrafted 19th Century Chinese Opera marionettes from the Chinese Beijing opera tradition of the Qing Dynasty. Body frames are made with mixed composition materials including clay, carved wood, metal, wire and paper mache. Head is painted blush pink with intricately detailed stark black features with Mandarin orange lips. Both puppets are wearing hand made silk hats trimmed in ribbon with one featuring hand cut silk Chinese characters. Hand sewn costumes are in silk and linen – one in a pale yellow and the other in a golden copper with hand embroidered florals and ribbon. Hands are made of wire with paper, then painted pink and beige with hand carved wooden shoes detailed with navy blue and red silk with ribbon. A truly labor intensive work of Art and most likely is unfortunately a lost Art form.
Condition
One puppet has a broken head, costume has signs of age with soiling and periodic deterioration although minor for age. One costume has hole to back of shirt where the stick (which is missing) would have gone in, fairly fragile. Please preview for personal assessment.
Item #
13CIN106-141
