Page 25 - Sotheby's Part II Collection of Sir Joeseph Hotung Collection CHINESE ART , Oct. 9, 2022

The present box is among the largest Yongle carved lacquer boxes
Smaller peony-decorated boxes with only three main blooms on
preserved, a size of which very few examples are extant. One top (18.5-25 cm) are far more common, both with and without reign
Yongle-marked companion piece is recorded, of similar size and marks; for three examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The
very similar design of five large peonies, two smaller blooms and Complete Collection of Treasures, op.cit., pls 29, 71 and 73; two others
two buds on top, arranged in the same layout, probably following in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, are illustrated in Heguang
the same pre-drawn imperial design; the box, probably in a private ticai, op.cit., nos 011 and 012.
Japanese collection, was included in the exhibition Chōshitsu/Carved
Lacquer, The Tokugawa Art Museum and Nezu Institute of Fine One even larger box carved with phoenixes among composite
Arts, Nagoya and Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 88. flowers on a diaper ground, was presented by Sir Percival David to
H.M. The King of Sweden upon the King’s 80 birthday, and is now
th
A smaller (26.5 cm) lacquer box of Yongle mark and period with in the Ostasiatiska Museet, Stockholm (John Figgess, ‘Ming and
a similar peony design differently laid out is in the National Palace Pre-Ming Lacquer in the Japanese Tea Ceremony’, Transactions
Museum, Taipei, from the Qing court collection, with the two smaller of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 37, 1967-69, pl. 52; and Tōyō
blossoms on either side of the present box reduced to buds, taking no shikkōgei, op.cit., no. 502). This box has later, however, been
into account the smaller space; the inside of its cover was in 1782 attributed to the Hongwu reign (1368-98) by Lee King-tsi and Hu
inscribed with an imperial poem by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736- Shih-chang.
95); see Heguang ticai. Gugong zang qi/Carving the Subtle Radiance
of Colors. Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Lee and Hu, both noted lacquer scholars and collectors, who
Taipei, 2008, no. 014 (fig. 1). Another Yongle five-peony box of this intensively studied early carved lacquer wares, postulated that the
smaller size was sold in these rooms 7th May 2002, lot 623 and at production of the superlative lacquer wares carved in this style
Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November 2017, lot 8009. and bearing Yongle reign marks started already in the Hongwu
period (‘Carved Lacquer of the Hongwu Period’ and ‘Further
Only few other Yongle boxes are known of the size of the present Observations on Carved Lacquer of the Hongwu Period’, Oriental
piece, but carved with different flower designs on top. One such box Art, vol. XLVII, no. 1, 2001, pp. 10-20, and vol. LV, no. 3, 2005-6, pp.
decorated with chrysanthemums, later inscribed with a Qianlong 41-47, both reprinted in Layered Beauty. The Baoyizhai Collection
reign mark, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies,
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, pp.
Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 46, 171-190). They referred to the gifts from the Yongle Emperor to
together with two further boxes of similar diameter, also from the the Ashikaga Shogun, the most important of which, with fifty-eight
Qing court collection, one decorated with a landscape, the other pieces, occurred in the first year of the Yongle reign, 1403, and stated
with Buddhist motifs, pls 44 and 45. A box carved with five camellias that since the complex lacquer production process could take years
on top and bearing a Xuande reign mark is in the National Palace to complete, this could not have been achieved within a matter of
Museum, published in Heguang ticai, op.cit., no. 013; another box months, and that the pieces the Emperor presented must therefore
carved with only three blooms on the cover, perhaps roses, from have been of Hongwu date.
the collection of the Nanzen-ji in Kyoto, one of the foremost and
oldest Zen temples whose history goes back to the 13th century, was Since many pieces in this list are clearly described, Lee and Hu tried
included in the exhibition Tōyō no shikkōgei/Oriental Lacquer Arts, to identify distinguishing features for Hongwu and Yongle wares
Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 504; and a box of this and proposed that Hongwu flower-decorated pieces typically show
size carved with five pomegranate blossoms was sold in these rooms, flowers of the Four Seasons and have the Yongle reign mark, later
11th July 2020, lot 110. inscribed, on the right-hand side of the base, while on actual Yongle
pieces the main decoration consists of a single species of flower and
the reign mark appears on the left. The Yongle date of the present
box thus would be confirmed also by this theory.
THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF THE LATE SIR JOSEPH HOTUNG I 49