**Four rare Chinese tiehua or iron pictures early 18th century, depicting landscapes containing figures and small huts before mountains, amidst willow, plantain and other leafy trees, each with a hardwood frame, 125cm x 138cm. (4)

Provenance: a private American collection, purchased from the descendants of John Reilly Jr., who acquired them in China c.1925-30.

Exhibited: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 1941, 'Chinese Pictures in Iron - XVIII and XIX Centuries'.

Cf. C Li & J C Y Watt, The Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the late Ming Period, an Exhibition From the Shanghai Museum; Jenyns and Watson, Chinese Art: The Minor Arts; B March, "Iron Pictures: A Chinese Craft," in Chinese Economic Monthly , Vol.iii. See also B March, "Iron In Art" in The Romance of Chinese Art; and "Iron in Art" in The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th Edition, and The Complete Collection of Treasures of The Palace Museum, Furniture of the Ming and Qing dynasties (II), p.204, no.177.