Page 251 - J.J. Lally Chinese Art CHRISTIE'S March 23 2023 NYC
P. 251

~930 A FINELY DECORATED LAC BURGAUTÉ   十Ӯ 十八世紀ǭ黑漆に鈿高士圖圓蓋盒
 CIRCULAR BOX AND COVER  款 「方扶九ה」
 17TH-18TH CENTURY
 The top of the cover is finely inlaid in mother-of-pearl, gold   Ϝ源
 foil, and silver foil with a scene of a reclining scholar admiring a   ૃ木堂
 香港
 flourishing lotus pond and two attendants, with one holding a fan   4ZEOFZ -  .PTT -UE 
 倫敦
     年 月
 and the other boiling water for tea. A quotation from a poem by   水松⒢山房莫士撝Ⅷ藏
 Zhou Dunyi is inscribed on the top left and is followed by a square   藍理捷
 紐約
 編號Y
 seal with the name Fujiu. The interior of the cover is inlaid with a
 展覽
 chrysanthemum bouquet tied with a ribbon. The exterior of the box   紐約
 藍理捷
 「雅ㅳ:中國文՞藝ワ」
     年 月     日
 is encircled by a narrow floral diaper and the base is inscribed with   編號
 a four characters reading Fang Fujiu zuo (made by Fang Fujiu). The
 interior of the box is further decorated with a group of articles for   ֨ḛ
 藍理捷
 《雅ㅳ:中國文՞藝ワ》
 紐約
     年
 編號  及封
 the scholar’s desk.
 面
 4 in. (10 cm.) diam., cloth box
 $60,000-80,000  The scene of a scholar beside a lotus pond in a garden setting was
 a popular theme in paintings and on ceramics and other works of
 PROVENANCE:
 Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong.  art throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is meant to
 evoke the refined lifestyle of the literati. The verses on this box are
 Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, January 1987.
 from a famous poem on the same theme by Zhou Dunyi (1017-
 Hugh Moss, Shuisongshi Shanfang (Water, Pine and Stone Retreat)
 1093) entitled Ai lian shuo (On the Love of Lotus). In the poem,
 Collection.
 Zhou uses flowers to describe different types of men and presents
 J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. x2627.
 the lotus as the “gentleman among flowers,” exemplary of the
 EXHIBITED:  character of the ideal scholar-gentleman. The verses on this box
 New York, J. J. Lally & Co., Elegantly Made: Art for the Chinese   may be translated as: “hollow at the center and straight outside;
 Literati, 13-27 March 2020, no. 10.  no vines and no branches” (open-minded and upright; not
 overreaching and not diverging).
 LITERATURE:
 J. J. Lally & Co., Elegantly Made: Art for the Chinese Literati,
 New York, 2020, no. 10 and cover.  A lac burgauté circular box and cover of similar form to the present
 box and decorated with figures in a landscape on the cover, in the
 Shanghai Museum, is illustrated in Qian wen wan hua: Zhongguo
 lidai qiqi yishu (In a Myriad of Forms: the Ancient Chinese
 Lacquers), Shanghai, 2018, pp. 196-97, no. 131, and dated to the
 early Qing dynasty, 17th – 18th century.































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