A VERY RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW GLASS AND JAPANESE LACQUER-INSET BRUSHPOT

Details
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW GLASS AND JAPANESE LACQUER-INSET BRUSHPOT
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD

Of thick square section with canted corners, the narrow sides carved in shallow relief with scrolling lotus, the broad sides with a recessed rectangular panel inset with Japanese lacquer panels decorated in gold hiramakie, nashiji and hirame on a roironuri ground, one depicting Chokkaro Sennin seated on rockwork while expelling air that will become a horse, the others with an ox and attendant, Immortal and landscape, the glass of even egg-yolk-yellow tone (tiny border chip restored)
5 1/2 in. (13.9 cm.) high

Lot Essay

A Beijing enamel snuff bottle inset with a similar gilt-lacquer panel bearing a Kangxi yuzhi mark is illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1991, no. 3.
This appears to be the only comparable published example of Japanese lacquer on a Chinese work of art.

It is not clear if the panels which appear to be complete compositions were made specifically for the brushpot which is of typical size, or whether they are reduced from a table screen, since they could be 17th Century. The latter seems more probable, since the scene depicting Chokkaro Sennin would usually include his horse. He was one of the Eight Immortals and usually shown with a gourd in Japanese Art, but a double bamboo in Chinese Art.

(US$40,000-50,000)

More from The Imperial Sale

View All
View All