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Lot Essay
It is extremely rare to find carved cinnabar lacquer boxes depicting hunting scenes. An mid-Ming example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi quanji - 5 - Ming, Fujian, 1995, p. 58, no. 57. This box also has a metal body, and could have been the inspiration of the current box and cover. Hunting scenes are also depicted on works in other medium, including bamboo, such as the brushpot in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 44 - Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong Kong, Commercial Press, 2002, p. 35, no. 34, and rhinoceros horn, such as the libation cup, also from the Palace Museum, illustrated in ibid, p. 168, no. 146. A spinach jade brushpot in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Jade in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1970, p. 36, also bears a very similar scene to that on the present lot, and with an incised title of 'Autumn Mountain Hunting'.
As early as in the Jin dynasty, hunting has been the Jurchen's favourite activity. Wanyan Aguda (1068-1123), the founder of the Jin dynasty, once said to Ma Kuo, the emissary of Song, 'Nothing is more pleasurable than hunting in my country'. Even after the Jurchen moved south, they still very much enjoyed this activity. Hunting in the Jin dynasty can be divided as chunshui (spring river) and qiushan (autumn mountain) two categories, one concentrating on the water birds of springtime, the other the mountain animals in the autumn. The principal preys for the qiushan hunts were deer, as well as other subsidiary animals like tigers and goats. In the Qing dynasty, hunting was confined to autumn alone. In 1681, the Kangxi emperor established a vast hunting ground in the South of the Greater Xing'an Mountains, covering approximately 10,000 km square and containing seventy-two enclosures. Autumn hunt became one of the most important national activities every year, and between 1681 and 1820, in the space of one hundred and forty years, as many as hundred and five autumn hunts were carried out, indicating its importance. One of the prey on the cover is an auspicious mythical animal, jiaoduan, whose appearance is supposed to signify peace and prosperity of the empire.
Another carved cinnabar lacquer in the Beijing Palace Museum, with a Qianlong mark and decorated with boys at play, also has a metal body, and has been rated a Grade One cultrual relic (see Zhongguo meishu quanji gongyi meishu bian - 8 - qiqi, Beijing, 1989, p. 168, fig. 168).
As early as in the Jin dynasty, hunting has been the Jurchen's favourite activity. Wanyan Aguda (1068-1123), the founder of the Jin dynasty, once said to Ma Kuo, the emissary of Song, 'Nothing is more pleasurable than hunting in my country'. Even after the Jurchen moved south, they still very much enjoyed this activity. Hunting in the Jin dynasty can be divided as chunshui (spring river) and qiushan (autumn mountain) two categories, one concentrating on the water birds of springtime, the other the mountain animals in the autumn. The principal preys for the qiushan hunts were deer, as well as other subsidiary animals like tigers and goats. In the Qing dynasty, hunting was confined to autumn alone. In 1681, the Kangxi emperor established a vast hunting ground in the South of the Greater Xing'an Mountains, covering approximately 10,000 km square and containing seventy-two enclosures. Autumn hunt became one of the most important national activities every year, and between 1681 and 1820, in the space of one hundred and forty years, as many as hundred and five autumn hunts were carried out, indicating its importance. One of the prey on the cover is an auspicious mythical animal, jiaoduan, whose appearance is supposed to signify peace and prosperity of the empire.
Another carved cinnabar lacquer in the Beijing Palace Museum, with a Qianlong mark and decorated with boys at play, also has a metal body, and has been rated a Grade One cultrual relic (see Zhongguo meishu quanji gongyi meishu bian - 8 - qiqi, Beijing, 1989, p. 168, fig. 168).