Page 82 - Nov 29 2017 HK Important Chinese Ceramics

THE PROPERTY OF AN ASIAN COLLECTOR
2924

A RARE AND FINELY CARVED CINNABAR PROVENANCE
LACQUER ‘PEONY’ BOX AND COVER Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Lacquer from the
YONGLE INCISED SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD Lee Family Collection, 3 December 2008, lot 2116
(1403-1425)
EXHIBITED
The gently domed box is naturalistically carved through thick The Museum of East Asian Art, Dragon and Phoenix: Chinese
cinnabar lacquer to a yellow ground to depict two depths of Lacquer Ware: The Lee Family Collection, Cologne, 24 March–24
peony flowers borne on undulating stems. The sides of the box are June 1990, Catalogue, no. 44
similarly carved. The interiors and the recessed base are covered Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990/91
with a dark brown lacquer, with an incised and gilt Yongle six- The Shoto Museum of Art, Chinese Lacquerware, Japan, 1991, no.
character reign mark in a vertical line near the left edge of the base. 50
3 √ in. (10 cm.) diam., box The Oriental Ceramics Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery
of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000 Years of Chinese
HK$1,200,000-1,800,000 US$160,000-230,000 Lacquer, Hong Kong, 24 September – 21 November 1993, pp.
92-93, no. 42
The thickness of the cinnabar lacquer applied to both the box and
cover is of particular note, for it enabled the carver to render two
levels of depth so that it gives a strong sense of movement and three-
dimensionality. Compare to a similar Yongle-marked circular box of
this same size with a dense pattern of hollyhock in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, and included in the exhibition, Carving the Subtle
Radiance of Colors: Treasued Lacquerware in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 40, no. 22.

80