Page 78 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Image courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Poly Auctions, Beijing, 5 December 2013 sale, lot 7169

This remarkable box and cover was previously part of a set likely The design of the God of Longevity, Shoulao, centred within a Chun
numbering eight or nine boxes, of which to-date only five similar (‘Spring’) character, appeared during the Qianlong period also on
cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze ‘Chun’ boxes and covers with relief carved lacquer boxes and covers, known as Chun Shou baohe,
gilt-bronze ‘face’ appliqués, Qianlong, appear to have been published. ‘Precious box of Spring and Longevity’; see one box in the National
These include, in addition to the present lot, the two which were sold Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by R.Zhang, Yangxindian zaobanchu
at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2007, lot 1323; one from the T.B. shiliao jilan-dierji Qianlong chao (Historical Materials Relating to the
Kitson collection, which was sold at Sotheby’s London, 21 February Imperial Workshop in Yangxing Dian: Part II Qianlong), Beijing, 2012,
1961, lot 263, and is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of p.136, pl.137, and another similar box, in the Qing Court Collection
Art (museum no.M.73.74a-b); and the fifth, from the Pierre Mercier in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection
collection, was published by Poly Art Museum, Beijing, The Exhibition of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Lacquer Wares of the Qing
of Chinese Bronze and Cloisonné Enamel Wares from the Pierre Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, p.88, pl.61. The design, however, was first
Mercier and Overseas Collections, Beijing, 2011, no.52, and was later introduced during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty (1522-1566).
sold at Poly Beijing, 5 December 2013, lot 7169. See also a pair of Compare with a polychrome lacquer carved ‘Chun’ box, Jiajing, in
closely related but larger cloisonné and champlevé enamel and gilt- the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of
bronze Chun boxes and covers, Qianlong, which was sold at Christie’s Treasures of the Palace Museum: Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming
Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3653. Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, p.176, no.134; and see also another
similar box, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colours:
Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008,
p.97, pl.87.

The design of Shoulao, his deer, and the depiction of cranes are all
symbolic of the wish for long life. The character Chun, Spring, is a
metaphor for youth and fertility. Combined, they impart auspicious
wishes to the emperor of long life and eternal youth. The cartouches
alternate with the Eight Treasures (Babao), the wish-granting pearl,
double lozenges, stone chime, pair of rhinoceros horns, cash, ingot,
coral, and ruyi.

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