Page 283 - Bonhams May 12 16 London

279 John Reeves (1774-1856) worked for the English East India Company
A RARE THREE-COLOUR CINNABAR LACQUER CIRCULAR in China as a tea inspector from 1812 to 1831. An avid enthusiast of
BOX AND COVER horticulture and natural history, he used his contacts in China to collect
Qianlong Chinese flowers and plants. He also amassed a large collection of
The cover exquisitely carved through three layers of yellow, green Chinese drawings of plants and animals which did much to spread
and red lacquer with a detailed scene of Shoulao followed by two knowledge of Chinese natural history in the West. His lucrative position
boy attendants carrying a large peach and two further immortals, all in the East India Company as well as his wide network of contacts no
observed by a boy profiteering a basket of flowers and lingzhi fungus, doubt helped him in acquiring this luxuriously carved lacquer box.
an antlered deer turning to look at the boy, all set within a mountainous
lakeside landscape with pavilions, the sides of the box and cover finely A red lacquer box and cover of this form is illustrated by
incised with a wan-character diaper, the interior and base lacquered R.D.Jacobsen, Appreciating China: Gifts from Ruth and Bruce Dayton,
black. Minneapolis, 2002, p.127, no.70. Compare with a related three-colour
17.8cm (7in) diam. (2). cinnabar lacquer circular boxes in the Palace Museum, illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Lacquer
£20,000 - 30,000 CNY180,000 - 280,000 Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Shenzhen, 2006, p.42, pl.26. Compare
HK$220,000 - 330,000 also with another related three-colour circular lacquer box and cover,
Qianlong period, which was sold in our London rooms, 7 November
清乾隆 剔彩山水人物圖圓蓋盒 2013, lot 307.

Provenance: John Reeves (1774-1856)
M.A. Goodman

來源： John Reeves(1774-1856)先生舊藏
M.A. Goodman先生舊藏

FINE CHINESE ART | 281