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Lot Essay
Two identical tiered boxes are known, the first in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Chinese Lacquer in the Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1981, pl. 57; and the other sold in our New York Rooms, 20 March 2001, lot 81.
The shape of this box may be based on Ming dynasty prototypes, such as the lacquer box incised and painted with two dragons contesting a 'flaming pearl' and incised on the base with a Longqing mark in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, illustrated by F. Low-Beer, 'Chinese Lacquer of the Middle and Late Ming Period', B.M.F.E.A., No. 24, Stockholm, 1952, pl. 17, nos. 78 and 79.
Tiered boxes of this type from the 18th century, are found in a variety of other shapes. For example, a square three-tiered box with indented corners, carved with floral sprays is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pl. 303; and an ingot-shaped polychrome lacquer four-tiered box was sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 26 April 2004, lot 925.
The shape of this box may be based on Ming dynasty prototypes, such as the lacquer box incised and painted with two dragons contesting a 'flaming pearl' and incised on the base with a Longqing mark in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, illustrated by F. Low-Beer, 'Chinese Lacquer of the Middle and Late Ming Period', B.M.F.E.A., No. 24, Stockholm, 1952, pl. 17, nos. 78 and 79.
Tiered boxes of this type from the 18th century, are found in a variety of other shapes. For example, a square three-tiered box with indented corners, carved with floral sprays is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pl. 303; and an ingot-shaped polychrome lacquer four-tiered box was sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 26 April 2004, lot 925.