The Hundred Flowers Poetry-Writing Paper from the Wenmei Studio

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), Xuantong period (1909�1911)

Illustrated by Zhang Zhaoxiang (fl. 1892�1907)

Tianjin: Wenmei zhai, 1911

No folding margin at center of folio; decorative borders; overall dimensions of volumes: 29.3 x 18.0 cm; block sizes of illustrations: approx. 23.7 x 15.0 cm; stitched binding

Inventory number: 16218

The "poetry-writing papers" produced by the Wenmei Studio in Tianjin are a continuation of the tradition of late Ming Nanjing productions of decorated stationery.� Illustrations by the Tianjin-based artist Zhang Zhaoxiang, a painter of intimate garden vignettes featuring a wide variety of floral, fruit, and plant subjects, were engraved on woodblocks and printed on individual sheets of ornamental paper, which in turn would have been stored in elegant stationery boxes.� Because the designs were printed in vivid, multiple colors to make them look like paintings on paper, they probably would not have been overwritten as were other kinds of decorated stationery printed with more delicate patterns in paler shades.

The first volume of this particular set contains large representations of various individual blossoms or sprays occupying the center of the sheet and framed by decorative borders; many of the designs evoke the paintings of the great early Qing flower painter Yun Shouping.� The second volume has somewhat reduced floral and pictorial compositions, some placed asymmetrically along one side of the framed space.� In addition, this volume features a number of embossed designs that are so delicate they barely can be discerned unless examined at very close range.