Page 165 - Sothebys Speelman Gems of Chinese Art

It is extremely rare to find a cloisonné enamel box and cover A smaller cloisonné enamel box and cover sold in our London
of this early period, and only a small number is recorded rooms, 9th December 1986, lot 29, shares a similar unusual
in any museum or private collection. The figural landscape feature as the current example. The features of the figures are
scene adorning the cover, which is boldly rendered in blocks decorated entirely in gilt-bronze. A wrist rest decorated in a
of red, turquoise and green, appears to have been influenced related style, with figures in a pavilion courtyard rendered in
by woodblock prints of the Ming dynasty. Woodblock prints blocks of colour, attributed to the 17th century, formerly in the
depicting scenes from popular novels and reproductions of collection of Mrs Walter Sedgwick and now in the collection
paintings saw a marked expansion of the decorative repertoire of Pierre Uldry, was included in Rietberg Museum exhibition
of craftsmen. The classic motifs, such as bird, flower or animal Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989,
designs, were produced alongside an increasing number of cat. no. 174, together with a table screen, depicting a figure
wares decorated with landscape scenes inhabited by figures in a landscape setting with similarly rendered clouds, cat.
and across a variety of media, particularly carved lacquer. no. 170. A box of related form, attributed to the early Ming
In shape and design, this box appears to have been inspired dynasty and illustrating a leafy peony bloom surrounded by a
by carved lacquer and porcelain circular boxes which were wider and more exaggerated sloping grapevine border, from
frequently adorned with such scenes and floral cartouches on the collection of David David-Weill and now in the Musée des
the sides. However, it is unusual as the scene does not include Arts Decoratifs, Paris, is published in Beatrice Quette, ed.,
the intricate carved diaper grounds of lacquer that were Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing
generally copied using wire cloisons. Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 36, fig. 3.10.