Page 145 - Bonhams FINE CHINESE ART London November 2 2021

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A LARGE CINNABAR LACQUER CARVED ‘BOYS AT PLAY’ The ‘boys at play’ motif emerged as an offshoot of the ‘One hundred
QUATREFOIL BOX AND COVER boys’ design. The motif was already found on stone carvings of the
Qianlong Han dynasty and in paintings of the Jin (265-420) and Tang (618-906)
The cover exquisitely carved with a scene of boys engaged in various dynasties. It became popular in the Song dynasty with painters such
pursuits such as flying a kite, fishing, reading, all in a terraced garden as Su Hanchen (1127-1189) and Li Song (1166-1243) but it was most
with pavilion and a mountainous landscape across a lake in the widely used in the Ming and Qing periods notably on ceramics, textiles
distance, the sides with panels enclosing flowers interspersed with the and lacquer. The theme of boys at play symbolises the wish for many
bajixiang, the box similarly decorated. sons, but also joy and happiness.
32.1cm (12 5/8in) wide. (2).
A related carved cinnabar lacquer box and cover of similar quatrefoil
£10,000 - 15,000 form, Qianlong, but with a motif of dragons, is illustrated in The
CNY89,000 - 130,000 Creation of Natural Immensity and Grandeur: The Yang Ming
Shan Fang Collection of Lacquer from Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing
清乾隆 剔紅庭園嬰戲圖海棠式蓋盒 Dynasties, Beijing, 2020, no.53. See also a circular cinnabar lacquer
‘boys at play’ box and cover, Qianlong, with similar motif, which was
Provenance: an English private collection sold at Sotheby’s London, 16 May 2018, lot 38.

來源：英國私人收藏

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 143