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PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 明永樂 剔紅牡丹紋蓋盒 《大明永樂年製》款
A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER 來源
CIRCULAR ‘PEONY’ BOX AND COVER, MARK 法國私人收藏（傳）
AND PERIOD OF YONGLE
紐約蘇富比2017年9月13日，編號54
the base incised with a six-character mark (2)
Diameter 4⅞ in., 12.5 cm
PROVENANCE
French Private Collection (by repute).
Sotheby’s New York, 13th September 2017, lot 54.
Boxes were among the most popular items made in carved
lacquer for the imperial court during the Yongle and Xuande
reigns, but boxes of this size and design are very rare.
Skilfully decorated on the cover with three blooming peonies
among dense foliage against the yellow ochre ground, this
box is notable for its deep carving contributing a greater
sense of three-dimensionality.
A Yongle box similarly carved with three peony blooms in
the National Palace Museum, Taipei, but much larger in
size, is included in the exhibition Heguang ticai. Gugong
zang qi/Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors. Treasured
Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008,
cat. no. 011, together with a Xuande example of large size
and comparable design, cat. no. 012. See two other large
boxes of similar design, dated to the early Ming dynasty,
included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming
Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pls 71 and 73.
Compare Yongle boxes of similar size and form, but carved
on the cover with five peony blooms, such as one from the
collection of H.M. King of Sweden, illustrated in Jan Wirgin,
‘Some Chinese Carved Lacquer of the Yuan and Ming
Periods’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities,
no. 44, 1972, pl. 11, no. 14; and another from the Edward T.
Chow Collection, included in the exhibition One Man’s Taste.
Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, Galleries of the Baur
Collection, Geneva, 1988, cat. no. L11, and sold in our Hong
Kong rooms, 3rd May 1994, lot 278.
$ 60,000-80,000

446 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744 447