Page 90 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

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A FINELY-CARVED THREE-TIERED RED LACQUER BOX AND COVER

MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The square box has three compartments, each fnely carved around the sides with scenes of
scholars and other fgures at various pursuits in landscape settings, the scenes framed by rocks
and trees at the corners. The top of the cover is carved with Budai holding a staff standing
beside a crane below a small crescent moon, all reserved on two diaper grounds indicating the
earth and sky, and the lowest compartment is raised on a fared foot carved around the sides
with a band of narrow, overlapping petals.
5æ in. (14.8 cm.) high, Japanese wood box with inscriptions
$30,000-40,000

It is unusual to fnd landscapes rather than fowers carved on the sides of tiered boxes of this date.
However, a four-tiered box and cover, also carved around the base with a shaped apron, in the collection
of the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Carved Lacquer, The
Tokugawa Art Museum and the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, October - November 1984, no. 134
The depiction of a single fgure in a landscape on the cover of a box of this size also appears to be
unusual. Single fgures are more often found on small circular boxes, such as the box, also carved with
Budai and a crane, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pl. 387. A
three-tiered box and cover of very similar design was sold at Christie’s New York, 17 September 2008,
lot 137. The unusual band of overlapping petals carved around the the foot can also be seen on another
red lacquer three-tiered box and cover, of hexagonal form, carved with Budai, illustrated by Derek
Cliford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, London, 1992, p. 61, pl. 37.
明十六世紀末/十七世紀初 剔紅山水人物圖三層方盒

(another view)

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