Page 54 - Bonhams Chinese Works of Art December 2015 Hong Kong

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AN EXCEPTIONAL FINELY-INLAID ‘HUNDRED DEER’ ZITAN
BOX AND COVER
Kangxi
The cover skilfully embellished with delicate colourful sheets of inlay
in various vivid media including mother-of-pearl, malachite, nephrite,
soapstone, gilt-bronze, carnelian, and carved wood, depicting a herd
of dotted and striped deer gambolling and resting in a lush landscape
encircled by fast-flowing and swirling streams cascading from jagged
rocks amidst wutong, bamboo, lingzhi and narcissus, below a gnarled
pine branch with overhanging wutong branches growing from the top
of the cliff, all under a red lacquered sun partially obscured by clouds,
all inlaid on the zitan ground, the rim of the cover and box finely inlaid
in silver wire to form a key-fret border, the wood of attractive reddish-
brown tone with characteristic streaks, the box raised on four bracket
feet, fitted box.
28.5cm x 17.8cm (11in x 7in) (3).

HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
US$450,000 - 580,000

清康熙 紫檀百寶嵌松鹿雙壽圖盒

Provenance 來源:
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 17 May 1989, lot 348

香港蘇富比，1989年5月17日，拍品348

Published and Illustrated 出版:
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, p.260, pl.407
Sotheby’s Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, p.347, pl.407

《香港蘇富比二十週年》，香港，1993年，頁260，圖407
《香港蘇富比三十週年》，香港，2003年，頁347，圖407

This exquisite box and cover belongs to a group of inlaid objects The present example, in its outstanding decoration of deer within
typically applied on precious zitan or huanghuali wood. This inlay a landscape, reflects the highest level of workmanship achieved
technique is often referred to as Baibao qian or ‘One Hundred during the early Qing dynasty. The brilliance of the master craftsman
Precious Objects Inlay’. The term is derived from the multiple and is evident in how naturalistic the scene appears. Consider how the
diverse materials used in creating the decoration, including jade, flowing river with splashing waves is rendered with a wonderful sense
agate, malachite, soapstone, carnelian, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell of movement, or how elegant the vines and leaves trailing from the
and lacquer. The use of such a wide variety of materials to compose gnarled pine branches are. Remarkably, despite each component
a pictorial scene, results in a stunning effect of vibrant colours being carefully carved separately and then assembled together to
and different textures, which as demonstrated by the present lot, form the scene, inlaid decoration during the Kangxi period illustrates
accomplishes great complexity and depth. Works of art made a distinctively free and elegant quality. The individually carved deer are
employing this technique required the sourcing of expensive semi- also exceptional, each in different poses, detailed with carefully incised
precious materials as well as the prized zitan wood; combined with the fur and expressive eyes.
masterful craftsmanship that would have been required, such objects
would have been very costly to produce. The multiple deer depicted on the present box elude to the popular
‘hundred deer’ motif, bailu, which is a homophone for ‘hundred
This technique was used to a great effect during the late Ming dynasty, emoluments’, representing the wish ‘May you receive the hundred
as demonstrated in a number of inlaid zitan and huanghuali wood emoluments from heaven’. Deer were also regarded as symbols of
boxes from the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete longevity due to their long life spans and ability to find lingzhi, the
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Bamboo, Wood, Ivory fungus of immortality. The decoration on the present box, with deer
and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong Kong, 2002, pls.219-225, with depicted together with pine trees and rocks that are also symbols of
some works in this style associated with the renowned master carver longevity, presents a multitude of auspicious wishes.
Zhou Zhu.

For early Qing dynasty examples from the Palace Museum, Beijing,
compare an inlaid zitan box and cover, of similar rectangular form with
decoration featuring a hunting scene, also with silver wire inlay around
the rims, but rendered in a slightly different key-fret band; and see an
inlaid zitan tiered picnic box and cover, with a design of egrets amidst
lotus and very similarly designed silver-wire inlay key-fret bands to the
rims, from the Qing Court collection, illustrated ibid., pls.226 and 230.

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