QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Carved polychrome boxes of this form, design and size are very rare, and it is even rarer to find them in pairs. Only four other nearly identical examples appear to have been sold at auctions. The first, with smaller matching boxes and covers, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2011, lot 3068; the second sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, lot 2866; a third was sold at Christie's London, 17 June 1985, lot 417; and the fourth was sold at Christie's New York 23-24 February 1982, lot 509. A smaller peach-shaped box of the same design was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2642. Compare also with a carved cinnabar lacquer peach-form box with related decoration accommodating smaller conforming boxes and covers in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguoqiqi quanji, vol 6, Qing, Fujian, p. 185, no. 219.

More commonly known are the circular polychrome lacquer boxes with identical design on the top panel but with different borders, such as a Qianlong-marked example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors: Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, p. 136, no. 137; and another example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, p. 88, no. 61. Compare also with a Jiajing-marked prototype in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see ibid., p. 97, no. 87.