Page 141 - Bonhams Chinese Works of Art December 2014

8274 8274 (reverse)

Property from a Japanese Collection

8274
A rare carved cinnabar lacquer box with opposing figural and
floral decoration
Late Ming dynasty
Of cylindrical form with short walls and flat top to each section, the top of cover carved in high
relief with ‘Three Gray Beards’ seated around a gaming board in an edited landscape that
continues onto the upright walls against a ground of flower-filled diamond diapers that repeat
on the exterior walls of the base surrounding camellia branches in bloom, the interior surfaces
finished in black lacquer.
2 3/4in (7cm) diameter
1 1/4in (3.3cm) high
$40,000 - 60,000

The formation of the camellia blossoms on the base of this box is very similar to the illustration
of the same plant in Li Shizhen’s Bencao Gangmu (Pandects of Natural History), published in
1596. See Regina Krahl, ‘Plant Motifs of Chinese Porcelain: Examples from the Topkapi Saray
Identified through the Bencao Gangmu, Part I,’ originally published in Orientations, May 1987,
vol. 18, no. 5, p. 59, and re-issued in Chinese Ceramics: Selected articles from Orientations
1982-2003, 2004, p. 145.

For a box of larger size (16.2cm diameter) with a similar diaper ground to opposing plant
and figural subjects but carved with identical floral patterns to the upright walls, see Gugong
bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji, vol.45 (Yuan Ming qiqi), 2006, cat. no. 195, p. 247, as
late Ming dynasty.

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