Page 82 - Imperial Sale Chinese Works of Art June 1 2016 HK

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A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER ‘PEONY’ 明永樂 剔紅牡丹花圓盒

BOX AND COVER 來源
日本關西私人珍藏，入藏於1950年代
YONGLE PERIOD, INSCRIBED YONGLE AND XUANDE
盒子母口，直壁，平蓋，圈足。通體黃漆素地上雕朱漆花
SIX-CHARACTER MARKS (1403-1425) 紋，蓋面中心雕三朵盛開的牡丹花，枝葉茂盛，牡丹或盛
開，或含苞欲放；盒壁雕菊花、茶花、牡丹、石榴花紋。盒
The top of the cover is carved and incised through layers of 內及底髹黑漆，底左側刀刻填金「大明宣德年製」楷書款，
lacquer with budding and blossoming peonies among dense 款下隱約可見針刻「大明永樂年製」款。
leafy stems to the buff ground, the side of the box and cover
similarly carved with a mixed floral frieze comprising blossoming
peony and chrysanthemum. The incised and gilt reign marks
superimposed, the Xuande mark obscuring most of the earlier
Yongle mark, both in a vertical line at the inner left side of the
base.
4 √ in. (12.4 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box

HK$900,000-1,200,000 US$120,000-160,000

PROVENANCE

A Japanese private collection, Kansai, acquired in the 1950s

The exquisite carving and naturalistic depiction of flowers on the
present box is characteristic of carved lacquerware from the early
Ming period, which represents some of the finest decoration found
in the Chinese decorative repertoire. The exacting standards of the
Yongle lacquer workshop are demonstrated when craftsmen in the
Xuande period, struggling to keep up with the high standards set by
their predecessors, on occasion carved bold Xuande marks on Yongle
pieces to suggest that they were made during the later reign period.
Pieces made in the late Yongle reign were also sometimes re-assigned
with Xuande marks.

A Yongle cinnabar lacquer box with very similar design but of larger
size (18.5 cm. diam.) with a Xuande mark and in the Palace Museum
Collection, Beijing is illustrated in The Complete Collection of
Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming
Dynasties, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p.46, no. 29. Another
larger example (26.6 cm. diam.) with a Yongle mark and decorated
with five flowerheads in the Taipei Palace Museum, and was included
in the Special Exhibition of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 1981, Catalogue, no. 8.

fig. 1 Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing
（圖一）北京故宮博物院藏品

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