Page 162 - 2020 December 10 Christie's Paris Arts of Asia Chinese Art

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF HIS ROYAL
HIGHNESS THE PRINCE HENRY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
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RARE ET IMPORTANTE BOITE COUVERTE EN LAQUE ROUGE
CHINE, DYNASTIE MING, EPOQUE YONGLE (1403-1425), MARQUE
INCISEE A SIX CARACTERES POSSIBLEMENT DE L’EPOQUE
Le couvercle est délicatement sculpté en relief en laque rouge de trois grandes
fleurs d’hibiscus épanouies parmi des feuilles luxuriantes. Le pourtour
du couvercle est à décor de dix fleurs différentes dont celles des quatre
saisons : pivoine, lotus, chrysanthème et camélia, représentant dans l’ordre le
printemps, l’été, l’automne et l’hiver et celui de la boîte est sculpté de pivoines
parmi les feuillages alternativement tête en bas et tête en haut. La base laquée
noire porte une inscription incisée à six caractères Da Ming Yongle Nian Zhi.
Diamètre: 31,5 cm. (12⅜ in.) ; Hauteur : 8,6 cm. (3⅜ in.)
€80,000-120,000 US$94,000-140,000
£73,000-110,000
PROVENANCE:
Thence by direct descent to his son His Royal Highness Prince Richard, Duke
of Gloucester.
John Sparks Ltd.(according to label).
A RARE AND IMPORTANT CINNABAR LACQUER CIRCULAR ‘HIBISCUS’
BOX AND COVER
CHINA, MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1425), INCISED SIX-
CHARACTER MARK POSSIBLY OF THE PERIOD
明永樂 剔紅秋葵花卉紋大蓋盒 「大明永樂年製」針刻款
來源:
英國格洛斯特公爵亨利王子殿下舊藏，后直接傳承至格洛斯特公爵理查
德王子
底貼英國古董商John Sparks Ltd.標簽
The exquisite carving and naturalistic depiction of hibiscus flowers on the
present box is very rare and is characteristic of carved lacquerware from the
early Ming period, which represents some of the finest decoration found in the
Chinese decorative repertoire. The rendering of the hibiscus is characterised
A number of related boxes of varying sizes bearing Yongle and/or Xuande
by the deep naturalistic carving, and as Clarence F. Shangraw observes in
reign marks have been published decorated with one, three, five or seven
his article 'Chinese Lacquers in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco',
blooms to the top of the cover. The closest example in terms of design to the
Orientations, April 1986, pp. 22-41, "The lacquer style of the Yongle era echoes
present box is another example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in
that of the underglaze-blue decorated porcelains and continued into the
Gugong Bowu Yuancang Diaoqi, Wenwu Chubanshe, 1985, no 34. A Xuande
subsequent Xuande reign".
and Yongle-marked 'camellia' box decorated with three blooms from the
Dr. Ip Yee and Lee Family collections was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1
Among the earliest surviving depictions of autumn hibiscus on the decorative
December 2009, lot 1819. Another example with a Xuande mark in the Palace
arts is a rare Southern Song (1127-1279) or Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) square
Museum collection, Beijing is illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and
painted lacquer tray in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco,
Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum,
which has a spray of these flowers painted in colours and gold in the centre
Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p.46, no. 29. A 'peony' box (21.9 cm.
(see Terese Tse Bartholomew, The Hundred Flowers – Botanical Motifs in
diam.) incised with a Yongle mark and decorated with five flowerheads is in
Chinese Art, San Francisco, 1985, no. 41). Autumn hibiscus also appear on a
the National Palace Museum, Taipei and was included in the Special Exhibition
famous circular carved lacquer ‘birds’ dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, and exhibited in
New York, illustrated by J.C.Y. Watt and B. Brennan Form in East Asian Lacquer
the Catalogue, no. 8.
– The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1991, pp. 68-9, no. 19.
The repertoire of floral decoration on extant boxes belonging to this group
includes camellia, chrysanthemum and hibiscus as well as peony. Cf. the
'camellia' box included in the British Museum exhibition, Chinese and
Associated Lacquer from the Garner Collection, 1973, and illustrated in the
catalogue, no. 32; an example from the Nezu Art Museum, exhibited at the
Tokyo National Museum, Exhibition of Oriental Lacquer Arts, 1977, Catalogue,
no. 506; and another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo
Qiqi Quanji, vol. 5, Ming, Fujian meishu chubanshe, 1995, pl. 17. Other examples
of Yongle boxes of varying sizes and differing numbers of flowerheads in the
Palace Museum Beijing are illustrated in op. cit., Wenwu Chubanshe, 1985,
nos. 31-42.
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