Page 119 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017
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An innovation of the Jiajing reign, this impressive piece belongs in A Special Exhibition of the Huang Ding Xuan Collection,
to a rare group of large ring-shaped boxes produced for the Kaohsiung Museum of History, 1999, cat. no. 36; and the
emperor. Commonly referred to as chaozhu he (‘box for court second from the Eli Lilly Collection, was sold in our New York
jewels’), this type is listed by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing ciqi rooms, 1st/2nd June 1993, lot 306.
jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong,
1993, fig. 233, no. 3, where he describes it as chuanling shi A Jiajing mark and period box of this form and large size,
he, in reference to its shape. As the name suggests, boxes but painted with Daoist immortals, from the Rogers fund in
of this type are believed to have been used as containers for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in
precious court accessories, such as necklaces or belts which Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New
often consisted of beads, plaques or pendants made from York, 1989, pl. 168; and one painted with cranes and bagua,
precious stones which were strung together. The circular form illustrated in Ma Xigui, ed., Mei zai taoci. Qinghua Ming ci/
of this piece would have allowed for jewellery to be stored in an Beauty of Ceramics. Blue and White Porcelain, Taipei, 1993,
orderly and safe manner. pl. 53. Compare also a box of this shape but painted with
Daoist immortals against an iron-red ground, from the Eli Lilly
In their size and unusual form these boxes display the high Collection, included in the exhibition Beauty and Tranquillity:
level of experimentation exercised by potters active at The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis Museum of
Jingdezhen in the 16th century, when an increasing number Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cat. no. 102, where the present box is
of porcelain vessels of unconventional shapes began to illustrated as a comparative example, p. 256, fig. a.
appear. Boxes of this form were constructed through the use
of moulds, and the present type is particularly notable due Boxes of related ring shape but of smaller size were also made
to its large and regular size. Only two Jiajing boxes of this in lacquer, such as one attributed to the Wanli period, sold in
type appear to have been published, the first was included our New York rooms, 15th June 1983.
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