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AN EXTREMELY RARE FAMILLE-ROSE 清乾隆
‘EUROPEAN SUBJECT’ BOX AND COVER 粉彩山水西洋人物圖荷包式蓋盒
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD
10 cm 來源：
奧林匹亞古董博覽會，倫敦，2010年
PROVENANCE
Olympia Antiques Fair, London, 2010.
HK$ 200,000-300,000
US$ 25,800-38,700

The quality of the famille-rose enamelled decoration on
this rare box and cover, skilfully mounted in gold alloy,
matches that on famous Qianlong-marked European-
subject decorated in the Palace Museum, Beijing and private
collections.
Compare the style of the enamelled decoration and precise
treatment of the figures on a Qianlong-marked gold-ground
box and cover in the Palace Museum, Beijing, of Japanese
inro design, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing
Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong,
1989, pl. 109. See also the design on the brushpot from the
collections of A.W. Bahr and Paul and Helen Bernat, sold
in these rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 36 and again 9th
October 2007, lot 1213. The enamelling of the figures on the
interior of the current box and cover is very close. See also
the famille-rose landscape panel created by Tang Ying in
1755, sold in our New York rooms, 11th September 2019, lot
663.
It is extremely rare to find foreign figures painted on
porcelain and indeed foreigners were more frequently
depicted on metal, especially during the reign of the Qianlong
Emperor, when enamelling on metal had reached its peak.
This reflected the emperor’s extravagant taste for showy and
unusual pieces.
The present piece represents a harmonious blend of
Chinese and Western tastes. Qianlong was known for his
penchant for pieces that were either technically innovative or
unconventional in their design and aesthetics, and this box
and cover would have been one of his ‘curios’ in his ceramic
collection.

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