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AN IMPERIAL CINNABAR LACQUER 'TREASURE' BOX AND COVER, QIANLONG PERIOD
奥地利
2025年10月16日 开拍
拍品描述
Expert's note: The superb craftsmanship required to produce the present cinnabar lacquer 'treasure' box and stand represents not only the Qianlong Emperor's appreciation of the works of art that would have been contained in the box, but also his all-encompassing yet detailed approach making the packing into an art form which merited treasuring and appreciation itself.China, 1736-1795. Of square form, the top of the cover centered by a shou roundel enclosed within a larger key-fret design forming a stylized wan character. The interior of this angular motif crisply carved to depict fruiting peach sprays alternating with flying bats on a swirling wave ground. The interstitial areas decorated with a finely incised hexagonal pattern enclosing chrysanthemum blossoms and additional wan characters.The sides of the cover distinguished by rectangular panels containing the Eight Daoist Symbols amidst swirling clouds, set against a minutely carved ground with diagonal squares and framed by a further squared pattern filled with repeated wan characters. The box raised on four ruyi-shaped feet at the corners and encircled by key-fret and petaled bands. The interior and underside lacquered black.Inscriptions: The underside of the cover bearing an old label inscribed 'Number 98' and 'Number [...]135'. The base with an additional label inscribed '12' and the painted character 'jing' (calm).Provenance: From an old private collection in Croatia.Condition: Good condition with expected wear and manufacturing irregularities. Minor nicks, occasional light scratches, scattered minute chips, and small losses to lacquer with associated touchups. One obvious crack running through the base.Weight: 1,225 gDimensions: Length 20.6 cmAt the height of the Qianlong Emperor's collecting activities, he had amassed more than a million precious art objects, both from antiquity and by contemporary craftsmen. They filled imperial halls and palaces, while smaller objects such as snuff bottles and handling pieces were ordered and stored in so-called “hundred treasure boxes”. These presentation boxes for the Imperial collections were often art forms in themselves, produced in a variety of media including jade and lacquer, and constructed with compartments and drawers to house individual items. For a variety of such boxes, see the catalogue of the exhibition One Hundred Pieces from the Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1990. For further discussion of the Qianlong Emperor's collecting activities, see the online exhibition catalogue on the National Palace Museum's website for their exhibition Story of a Brand Name: The Collection and Packaging Aesthetics of the Qing Emperor Qianlong, Taipei, 12 August 2017-3 July 2018.The present box is a quintessential example of the intricately layered surfaces that characterize carved lacquerware from eighteenth-century China, as well as the auspicious symbolism often embedded in such works. The stylized Chinese character 'shou', meaning longevity, is accompanied by bats, whose name in Chinese is a homophone for 'good fortune', and peaches, traditional symbols of long life. The Eight Daoist Auspicious Emblems (anbaxian) carved on the sides of the box, originally derived from Buddhist iconography, are associated with the legend of the Eight Immortals and the cosmological system of the Ba Gua, each representing fundamental aspects of nature and existence, and including a double gourd, a peach and a fan, a flower basket, a bamboo drum, a lotus pod, a sword, a flute, and castanets.The 'wan' character appears as a dominant and recurring decorative motif on this box, underscoring its rich symbolic and imperial connotations. The swastika is an ancient symbol found across numerous cultures throughout the Eurasian continent. In China, it dates back to the painted pottery of the Neolithic Majiayao culture, which flourished between approximately 3300 and 2000 BC in the upper Yellow River region. It gained prominence during the Eastern Han period (25-220) through its association with Buddhist iconography. However, it was not until the reign of the Tang dynasty Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang (684-704) that its pronunciation was officially declared as 'wan'. Homophonous with the Chinese word for 'ten thousand', the character came to embody the notion of 'myriad auspicious things in the universe'. It was subsequently absorbed into the broader framework of Chinese visual and symbolic culture, conveying the auspicious rebus 'wan wan shou', which may be rendered as 'May you live for ten thousand years', a greeting reserved exclusively for the emperor.Literature comparison:Compare a related three-color lacquer square box with landscape scenes and auspicious emblems, dated 18th-early 19th century, 23.9 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 81.1.611a, b.Auction result comparison:Type: Closely related Auction: Bonhams London, 11 November 2010, lot 438 Price: GBP 48,000 or approx. EUR 99,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing : A rare imperial carved cinnabar lacquer square 'treasure' box and stand, Qianlong periodExpert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, motifs, and size (21 cm). Like the present lot, this is an unmarked 'treasure box' dating from the Qianlong period, albeit with a pair of drawers to each side. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie's Hong Kong, 2 December 2015, lot 3124 Price: HKD 1,180,000 or approx. EUR 158,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing : A two-tiered carved cinnabar lacquer box, cover and stand, Qianlong period Expert remark: Compare the closely related manner of carving and motifs. Note the size (18.8 cm) and slightly different form.

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拍品估价:3,000 - 6,000 欧元 起拍价格:3,000 欧元  买家佣金:

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