Page 32 - Sotheby's Paris June 12, 2018 Asian Art

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ANCIENNE COLLECTION PARTICULIÈRE FRANÇAISE
MIROIR EN BRONZE ET SON ÉCRIN EN LAQUE
POLYCHROME SCULPTÉ
DYNASTIE QING, ÉPOQUE QIANLONG
de forme polylobée, la prise centrale en forme d’animal fabuleux
couché accueillant un double pompon en soie jaune, entourée de
quatre animaux des mers parmi les pampres de vigne, les bords animés
d’oiseaux et de papillons en vol, dans un écrin sur mesure en soie jaune
brodée et décorée sur les deux faces d’un dragon à cinq gri' es tenant
la perle enß ammée et portant l’inscription Fang Han xiang ma jun ni jian
dans un cartouche, dans sa boîte en laque trois-couleurs, à décor de
lotus stylisés sur la bordure, la base laquée noire (3)
Diam. 14,3 cm, 5⅝ in. (le miroir), Diam. 21,4 cm, 8¾ in. (la boîte)
PROVENANCE
This bronze mirror and lacquer box share the same provenance as the
wonderful yangcai vase o' ered in PF1837, lot 1. It had been left to the
present owners by a great-granduncle and appears among the listed
contents of his Paris apartment after he passed away in 1947. It is listed
along with several other Chinese and Japanese objects including other
Chinese porcelains, two dragon robes, a yellow silk textile, and the
wonderful yangcai vase o' ered in our sale PF1837, lot 1.
While the exact provenance of the vase and the other Chinese and
Japanese pieces before 1947 cannot be traced, the receipt of a Satsuma
censer acquired as a weddding gift in the 1867 Universal Exhibition in
Paris by an ancestor of the family suggests an active interest in Asian art
at a very early date. Similarly, this bronze mirror and lacquer box may
well have been acquired in Paris in the late 19th century when the arrival
of Asian works of art initiated a fashion for Japanese and Chinese art.
A rare Tang-style bronze mirror and silk pouch within a carved
three-colour lacquer box, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period
7 000-9 000 €
67 000-86 000 HK$ 8 500-11 000 US$
૶৻ඤ ͷࡥڡზ⺗ვ๿ᖕ७ᗝ ৣ ࡜੹ᚂ،ᇳ७ଷ

During the Qing dynasty, rare, precious and exotic works of art including
antiquities were kept in curiosity cabinets of varying sizes and shape.
While on the exterior these small boxes or cabinets revealed nothing of
their contexts, once opened the objects contained within would reveal
themselves being ingeniously Þ tted into the contained spaced. This mirror
is just such an example of which several have survived in the Imperial
collection. The yellow pouch bears the mirror’s title though not Han in
style but Tang, it was considered rare and may even have been part
of the Imperial collection of Antiquities as two similarly shaped bronze
mirrors documented in the imperial catalogue Xiqing gujian, which was
compiled on the Emperor Qianlong’s order by Liang Shizheng and others
between the 14th (1749) and 20th (1755) year of his reign (Fig. 1). This
bronze mirror presented here appears to have been part of a larger group
of objects all Þ tted into di' erent trays of a tiered carved three-colour
lacquer box that was especially made and Þ tted to accommodate the
shape and size of the mirrors, see also another bronze mirror from the
Imperial collection similarly kept in an elaborately embroidered silk pouch,
compare The Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2000, cat.
no. 119. Multiple bronze mirrors from the Imperial collection often appear
in boxes made just for bronze mirrors, compare Tao Wang, Mirroring
China’s Past. Emperors, Scholars and their Bronzes, Chicago, 2018, pls.
93-96. Yet other examples are illustrated in Jean-Paul Desroches, La Cité
Interdite. Vie de Cour des Empereurs et Impératrices de Chine, Monaco,
Fig. 1: Caption: Xiqing gujian [Catalogue of Chinese ritual bronzes in the
2017, p. 96 and cat. nos. 118 and 119. collection of the Qianlong Emperor], juan 40, pls. 57 and 58

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