Page 156 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
士紳珍藏
2987

A FINELY CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER It is rare to find lacquer boxes of the Qianlong period so deeply
and roundly carved with designs of such intricate and complex
‘BOYS’ CIRCULAR BOX AND COVER composition. Compare with three very similar Qianlong ‘boys’ boxes
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795) and covers, one with a Qianlong mark from the Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Lacquer, Vol. 8, no.
The cover is elaborately carved with a scene of children playing 168, p. 168; another illustrated in Le Musée Chinois de l'Impératrice
in a pavilion garden, some playing musical instruments, some Eugénie, p. 49; and a third in The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
dancing or playing with wood horses. The scene continues over illustrated by Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections,
Lacquerware, 1987, pl. 155.
the edge of the cover and the box depicting further boys at play, all
on a finely carved diaper-ground. See a very similar example sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 5-6 November
5æ in. (14.5 cm.) diam. 1997, lot 911, another slightly larger example, depicting the same
subject of ‘hundred boys’, sold at Christie's Paris, 14 December 2011, lot
HK$400,000-600,000 US$52,000-77,000 41, and a third one sold at Sotheby's London, 16 May 2018, lot 38.

清乾隆 剔紅嬰戲圖圓蓋盒

154