Page 116 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
1651
A VERY RARE TIANQI AND QIANGJIN POLYCHROME LACQUER
QUATREFOIL TRAY
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER INCISED AND GILT MARK AND OF THE
PERIOD (1736-1795)
The tray is decorated with a chun (spring) character centered by a roundel A very similar tray of the same size in the Qing Court collection is illustrated
enclosing Shoulao (the God of Longevity) above a quatrefoil bowl flled with in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum - 46 - Lacquer Ware of the
‘treasures’ fanked by a pair of fve-clawed dragons leaping amidst clouds, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 117, no. 83, where it is attributed to the
below bats in fight amidst ruyi-shaped clouds in the cavetto that are repeated mid-Qing dynasty. The same central motif can also be seen on a petal-
on the exterior, all incised and gilt on black, red and green lacquer on an barbed ‘lotus’-shaped polychrome box similarly executed in the tianqi (flled-
orange-red ground. The base is lacquered black. in) and qiangjin (engraved gold) techniques, also in the Qing Court collection
6¬ in. (16.8 cm.) long, cloth box and dated to the Qianlong period, illustrated ibid., pp. 128-29, no. 91.
The motifs decorating this tray are very auspicious. The character chun,
$60,000-80,000
(spring), is an auspicious metaphor for eternal youth. Combined with the
overlaying roundel of Shoulou, the God of Longevity, who symbolizes
PROVENANCE long life, the box would have represented wishes for eternal youth. These
Acquired in London in the early 1960s (by repute). combined with the other imagery of the dragons amidst clouds, the rays
Private collection, New Jersey, by 1991. rising from the bowl of ‘treasures’, and the bats around the sides, add to
Sotheby’s New York, 16 September 2008, lot 140. the aupicious nature of the tray. This popular Daoist subject was frst seen
in carved lacquer during the Jiajing period (1522-1566), a refection of the
Jiajing emperor’s intense interest in Daoism and eternal life. A multi-colored
lacquer box carved in the center with the same subject, of Jiajing date, in the
Qing Court collection, is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace
Museum - 47 - Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong,
2006, p. 176, pl. 134. This motif was revived during the reign of the emperor
Qianlong, but usually in carved lacquer, like the Jiajing prototypes. Two of
these carved lacquer boxes in the Qing Court collection, both dated to the
mid-Qing dynasty, are illustrated ibid., vol. 46, pl. 59, in yellow lacquer, and
no. 61, in polychrome lacquer. Tianji and qiangjin lacquer pieces with this
design appear to be very rare.
(mark) 清乾隆 戧金填彩春字雙龍獻寶小盤 描金六字楷書刻款

(another view)

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