Page 159 - Christie's July 9th 2020 Hong Kong Important Chinese Works of Art

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AN EXTREMELY RARE AND UNUSUAL It is very rare to find coconut-shell decorations on furniture or objects
of significant size such as the present chest. Coconut-shell was mostly
COCONUT-SHELL-INLAID HUANGHUALI crafted into wine cups or archer’s rings, or used as inlays to embellish
‘ICE-CRACKLED’ LACQUERED CHEST scholar’s objects, as illustrated by MD Flacks, Custodians of the
Scholar’s Way: Chinese Scholars’ Objects in Precious Woods, Chicago,
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY 2015, p. 306.
Of rectangular form, the top, sides, back and the removable front This delicate material was cut and crafted with meticulous skill to
are constructed from coconut-shell-inlaid ‘ice-crackled’ panels set create a remarkably smooth surface. The ‘ice-crackled’ pattern was
within huanghuali frames. The removable front panel has a ruyi- inspired by lattice panels decorating the greatly admired gardens of
Southern China, (see an illustration in one of the earliest publications of
shaped metal pull below a rectangular panel framed by ivory, and Chinese garden-scape designs, Yuanye (The Garden Treatise) dated to
opens to reveal a shelf, the interior decorated with ochre and black 1631).
lacquer painted with butterflies and flowers. The whole is raised on
a huanghuali platform base.
15 in. (38 cm.) high, 15 Æ in. (40 cm.) wide, 9 ¬ in. (24.5 cm.) deep. 清十八世紀 黃花梨嵌象牙椰殼冰裂紋長方匣
HK$300,000-400,000 US$39,000-52,000

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