Page 72 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art 09/13/17

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A CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER HEXAFOIL Deftly carved with a sinuous ve-clawed dragon against a
‘DRAGON’ BOX AND COVER detailed ground of waves, boxes of this type appear to be rare.
WANLI MARK AND PERIOD, DATED BINGXU The motif is more commonly known on boxes of similar form
YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 1586 but decorated in the qianjin and tianqi techniques, such as one
also inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1586, in
deftly carved to the top of the cover with a hexafoil medallion the Okayama Art Museum, Okayama, included in the exhibition
enclosing a writhing ve-clawed dragon in pursuit of a ‘ aming Oriental Lacquer Arts, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1977,
pearl’ amidst ruyi-form clouds and above crested waves cat. no. 558; and another, but modeled with ve lobes and
breaking against jagged rocks, all reserved on a wave ground, dated to the dingwei year of the Wanli reign, corresponding to
the lobed sides with bands of peony and chrysanthemum 1607, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo
borne on stems, with bands of hexagonal diaper enclosing qiqi quanji [Complete series on Chinese lacquer], vol. 5, Fujian,
1995, pl. 148.
orets at the rims, the foot encircled by a keyfret border, the
interior and base lacquered black, the base with a gilt- lled Lacquer boxes of this attractive lobed form appear to have
incised mark in a horizontal line, Japanese wood box (4) been popular in the preceding Jiajing and Longqing reigns;
Width 10⅛ in., 25.7 cm see a box with Jiajing mark and of the period decorated with
precious objects, from the Qing Court collection and still in
PROVENANCE Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures
in the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming
Spink & Son Ltd., London. Dynasties, Shanghai, 2006, pl. 132; and a Longqing mark and
Christie’s Hong Kong, 24th October 1993, lot 512. period example, similarly carved with a dragon, in the National
The Lee Family Collection. Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Gugong qiqi
tezhan mulu [Special exhibition of palace lacquer objects],
EXHIBITED Taipei, 1981, pl. 39.

The Minor Arts of China IV, Spink & Son, London, 1989,
cat. no. 1.

$ 50,000-70,000
1586

Spink Son Ltd 512
1993 10 24

The Minor Arts of China IV Spink Son

1989 1

70 SOTHEBY’S