Page 69 - Bonhams, FIne Chinese Art, Linda Wrigglesworth Collection, May 13, 2021 London

Finely decorated with combined designs of The number ‘five’ is also a propitious number, See a related cloisonné enamel box and
dragons, bats and blossoming flowers, the and the groups of five red bats depicted on cover with dragons, late Qing dynasty, in
present box underscores multiple layers of the present box provide a rebus for wufu, the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in the
auspicious symbolism. Capable of flying the ‘Five Blessings’ of longevity, health, Compendium of Collections in the Palace
high in the sky and diving back into the sea, wealth, love of virtue and a good end to life. Museum: Enamels, 4, Beijing, 2011, p.314,
dragons were regarded as intermediaries Finally, the lotus, emerging from the mud, no.255. Compare also with a related cloisonné
between Heaven and Earth and empowered is emblematic of purity but also symbolises enamel box and cover, 18th century, similarly
with extraordinary powers that compared progeny because of its homophonic decorated with floral cartouches and applied
with those of the emperor. Even the number association with the word for continuation; gilt-bronze dragons but on the cover with a
‘nine’, for the dragons decorating the present the peony conveys wishes for status and landscape scene depicting deer and peach
box, evoked Infinity, partly because it was the wealth, the chrysanthemum is homophone with trees, illustrated by G.G.Avitabile, Cloisonné
product of ‘three times three’ - the most basic eternity and finally, the prunus, blossoming in und Champlevé-Arbeiten. Von 1400 Bis 1900,
unit of three being Heaven, Earth and man - the colder months, symbolises fortitude. Hannover, 1981, p.130, no.62.
and partly because the number ‘nine’
is homophone with the word for Infinity.

59

FINE CHINESE ART | 67