Page 99 - Christie's Irving Collection Lacquer Bronse jade and Ink March 2019

A RARE IMPERIAL

RED L ACQUER BOX TO

STORE A DAOIST SCRIPTURE

This rare scripture box belongs to a group of similar doctrines and practices in the Daoist cosmology,” and that
carved red lacquer boxes that were made during the the “duplication of scriptures was considered a meritorious
Qianlong period to store Daoist and Buddhist scriptures. practice in both Buddhism and Daoism.” The copy in
Although the Qianlong emperor was a devotee of Tibetan the Palace Museum collection was executed in the ninth
Buddhism, he followed the tradition of the Qing court in year of the Qianlong emperor’s reign (1744), refecting the
supporting Daoism, as well. During his reign, and that of “Emperor’s interest in Daoist self-cultivation practices.”
the other Qing emperors, he participated in annual Daoist
Two other lacquer boxes of this shape carved with Buddhist
rituals and festivities, and elaborate Daoist celebrations
assemblies have been published. One formerly in the
were held around his birthday. This fuid boundary between
collection of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Palmer, and now in the
Daoism and Buddhism that had evolved during the
Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated by R. Soame
centuries since the introduction of Buddhism to China,
Jenyns and William Watson, Chinese Art II, New York,
when Daoism was already well established, also resulted in
1980 ed., pp. 220-21, no. 47. This box has very similar
the intermingling of Buddhist and Daoist imagery, Whether
dragon panels on the narrow sides and a Qianlong mark
made to store Daoist or Buddhist scriptures, all of the
in green and red lacquer that translates as “Reverently
published lacquer scripture boxes of this type are fnely
ofered to the emperor Qianlong,” on the back. The box is
carved with similar densely populated assemblies of either
described as being decorated with Buddhist saints and
Daoist or Buddhist celestial beings.
defenders presided over by Maitreya, the Buddha-to-come.
The Irving box appears to depict Wenchang, the Daoist The authors propose that boxes of this type were used
god of Literature and Culture, seated holding a hu tablet on to hold spirit tablets inscribed with the deceased’s name
a throne at the top. The assembly includes gods dressed and were kept in an ancestral temple. The Palmer box is
as oficials holding hu tablets, intermixed with other gods also published by Michel Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector
holding discs of the Twelve Animals of the Zodiac, some through the Centuries, Vermont/Tokyo, 1966, p. 235, no. 76.
fgures with dragon, bird or animal heads, guardian fgures The second box, sold at Sotheby’s, Paris, 22 June 2017, lot
and a central fgure of Marshal Wang (Wang Yuanshuai) 122, dated to the Qianlong period, does not have a mark and
standing on a faming wheel. A lacquer box with related the dragons on the narrow sides are shown amidst dense
decoration of an assembly of Daoist celestial beings, also clouds. The celestial assembly on this box, like the Palmer
with a seven-character Qianlong mark, as well as the box, is identifed as being overseen by Maitreya.
scripture that it held, the Huangtingjing (Scripture of the
A related carved red lacquer box, of almost square shape
Yellow Court), is in the collection of the Palace Museum,
and somewhat smaller size (28 cm. high), decorated on the
Beijing, and illustrated in China: The Three Emperors 1662-
front and the sides with similar scenes of celestial beings,
1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, p. 153, no. 60.
in this instance Budddhist, from the Qing Court collection,
(Fig. 1) The catalogue entry notes that the scripture book
is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
consists of two volumes with brocade covers and a brocade-
Palace Museum - 46 - Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty,
covered slipcase that would have been kept in the carved
Hong Kong, 2006, p. 38, pl. 24, where it is described as
red lacquer box. The back of the box has an inscription, Da
a sutra container. The Qianlong mark is in a panel in the
Qing Qianlong nian jing zao (Made with reverence in the
center of the carved top.
Qianlong era of the Great Qing). The catalogue entry further
notes that the Huantingjing was a fourth-century Chinese Patricia Curtin
meditational text that “encompasses several layers of Consultant, Christie’s
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