Page 233 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Fine Chinese Art

316 Wall-vases were particularly popular during the reign of the Qianlong
A RARE PAIR OF IMPERIAL CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER emperor and are known to have adorned the walls of the Sanxitang
JADE-INSET WALL VASES (‘The Hall of Three Rarities’), a small studio next to the Imperial
Qianlong bedchamber in the Yangxindian. They were produced often in pairs
Each modelled as a flattened bottle vase supported on a mock wood in a variety of materials including porcelain, cloisonné and champlève
stand, the domed body inset with a jade plaque carved with melons enamel, and lacquer as the present lot. Jade was used to embellish
on gnarled branches beside a butterfly, surrounded by three butterflies wall vases and other Imperial works of art including boxes, screens,
amongst melons issuing from flowering branches, beneath a stylised furniture and various vessels. Compare a related inscribed jade-inset
shou character flanked by archaistic dragons to the shoulder, rising to cinnabar lacquer wall vases, late 18th century, in the National Palace
a tapering neck decorated with archaistic upright stiff leaves bracketed Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Chen Yuh-Shiow, The Enchanting
by scrolls, reserved on a dense key-fret ground. Splendor of Vases and Planters: A Special Exhibition of Flower Vessels
Each 19.6cm (7 3/4in) high (2). from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 2014, pp.228-229 and 287,
pl.II-48, where the author notes that ‘Lacquerware with jade inlay on
£10,000 - 15,000 a copper body is very rarely seen’. A related single inscribed jade-inlaid
CNY86,000 - 130,000 cinnabar lacquer wall vase, Qianlong, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5
October 2016, lot 21; see also another single inscribed jade-inset lacquer
清乾隆 剔紅嵌玉瓜瓞綿綿紋璧瓶 一對 wall vase, Qianlong, which sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on 25 April 2004,
lot 19; and a further example of a jade inset cinnabar lacquer moonflask,
Qianlong mark and period, which sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 April
1997, lot 21.

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.