Korea, 19^th to mid-20^th century. Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper. Mounted on six panels within silk brocade embroideries and applied to a lacquered wooden frame with embossed and incised iron fittings. The panels painted with various scholars’ accoutrements including an array of books, scrolls, flowers, vases, and other items associated with a scholar's studio. The lower section of the second panel from the left, showing a variety of seals, is painted with a hidden artist signature in the form of a seal face. The lower left with an additional signature and seal.

Provenance: From the Staten Island, USA, estate of a noted traveler and collector, and thence by descent.
Condition: Good condition with old wear, slight browning of paper, and some foxing. The silk brocade frame with some soiling, water stains, and signs of wear and use. Visible damage to old paper mountings on backside of screen. Minor corrosion to iron fittings.

Dimensions: Size 177.5 x 257.5 cm

In Korea the still life is a pictorial movement that flourished in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Books appear next to various objects associated with writing, harmoniously combined with natural elements drawn from the animal and vegetal world.

Books are presented in three forms: on “shelves”, in “piles”, or scattered, this last type influenced by China. The older the painting the more the books are represented in order. Books and objects in disorder, associated with humans or animals, appear in more recent works. The paintings’ composition is in reverse perspective, while patterns are mainly geometric. This treatment makes painted objects become symbolic representations of learning and knowledge, images meant to watch over the person living in the room where they were exhibited, room of the children of the family or studies where they were mounted on screens. Gradually however, during the Choson period, those representations became purely decorative paintings.

Particularly appreciated by the king Jeongjo, still life painting then crossed the social classes to become a highly prized genre among the common people. It is still present today in a contemporary pictorial trend that sometimes combines absurdity and realism.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related eight-panel folding screen, also signed with a hidden seal, Joseon dynasty, size 203.8 x 289.6 cm, in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, accession number 1998.111. Compare a closely related six-panel folding screen, Yi or Joseon dynasty, size 135 x 42.5 cm, in the Musée Guimet, accession number LUF 15.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 23 March 2011, lot 992
Price: USD 458,500 or approx. EUR 627,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: Anonymous, Scholar's Accouterments (chaekgori), second half 19th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject and similar neatly stacked piles of books interspersed with scholars’ accruements. Note that the lot comprises a ten-panel screen.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Galerie Zacke, 29 September 2022, lot 201
Price: EUR 23,000 or approx. EUR 25,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A ‘chaekgori’ eight-panel screen, Joseon dynasty, with ‘hidden’ artist seal, Korea, 19^th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject and similar neatly stacked piles of books interspersed with scholars’ accruements. Note that the lot comprises an eight-panel screen.