Page 89 - Bonhams September 10 2018 New York Chinese Works of Art

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AN IMPERIAL ENAMEL ‘FLORAL MEDALLION’ SEAL PASTE
BOX AND COVER
Qianlong mark and of the period
Of octalobed form, all surfaces covered in white enamel except for The design of scattered varied floral medallions seen on the present
the raised gilded edges and lip, the top of the gently-domed cover example is known in Chinese as piqiu hua, literally meaning ball
and sides of the box finely painted with a profusion of different floral flowers. This design was clearly admired in the Imperial Court
medallions, irregularly spaced with some overlapping, the sides of the from the Yongzheng to the Qianlong periods, as seen on similarly
cover decorated with floral scrolls, the interior painted with a still life decorated examples in the Qing Court Collections now surviving in
of lotus root, finger citron, melon, rose and berries with two fluttering the Palace Museum, Beijing and the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
butterflies, all enclosed within a border of five linked bats, the base of This design was used on objects made in painted enamel, porcelain
the box inscribed in blue enamel with the four-character reign mark and cloisonné enamel. For painted enamel examples with Qianlong
within a double-square. marks see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
2in (5cm) wide Museum: Metal-Bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pls.199
and 213; and Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei,
$10,000 - 15,000 1999, pls.139 and 140.

清乾隆 銅胎畫琺瑯皮球花花式印泥蓋盒 《乾隆年製》款 An almost identical example to the present lot, but with the floral
medallions arranged slightly differently, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong
Kong, 7 April 2015, lot 3612. A circular seal paste box and cover
with similar decoration from the Andrew L. and Amanda Adams Love
collection was sold at Christie’s, New York, 20 September 2005, lot
122; and a twelve-lobed box with the same decoration was sold in
our London rooms, 17 May 2012, lot 150.

124
No lot

Interior of cover

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