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Lot Essay
The box is carved in quatrefoil form, with a flat cover exquisitely decorated with a scene of the Eight Immortals carrying their respective attributes facing towards Shoulao sitting under the pine tree, all surrounding a large bowl at the centre overflowing with auspicious emblems, bordered with a silver wire-inlaid band of keyfret pattern. The curving sides are decorated with garden scenes in which the scholars and their attendants are surrounded by rockwork and gnarled trees.
The intricate inlay of various colourful materials to depict the figures and landscape scene against a rich, lustrous dark wood ground is outstanding. The box is skillfully inlaid with malachite as the treasure bowl, soapstone and lapis lazuli as the rock, dyed ivory as the pine tree leaves, mother-of-pearl as the cloud, and amber and agate as the robes.
There are total three pairs of boxes of the same design and size in the Palace Museum Collection. One of them is illustrated in Bamboo, Wood and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, p.288, pl.233 (fig.1).
See also another example of identical design with silk-lined cavities fitted for two archer’s rings, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (museum no. 001679N000000002) (fig.2). According to the Records of the Qing Imperial Workshops (Qinggong zaobanchu huoji dang) vol. 32, the twenty-second year of the Qianlong reign, the Eunuch Hu Shijie submitted a gold-and-silver-inlaid quaterfoil box containing eight rhinoceros horn rings. Then he transmitted the imperial decree, stating that the emperor ordered eight more zitan quatrefoil boxes with the cover decorated with Eight Immortals and Shoulao, encircled by a band of keyfret pattern and seasonal landscape scenes. The current box matches the description in the record and was very likely manufactured under this imperial order.
The intricate inlay of various colourful materials to depict the figures and landscape scene against a rich, lustrous dark wood ground is outstanding. The box is skillfully inlaid with malachite as the treasure bowl, soapstone and lapis lazuli as the rock, dyed ivory as the pine tree leaves, mother-of-pearl as the cloud, and amber and agate as the robes.
There are total three pairs of boxes of the same design and size in the Palace Museum Collection. One of them is illustrated in Bamboo, Wood and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, p.288, pl.233 (fig.1).
See also another example of identical design with silk-lined cavities fitted for two archer’s rings, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (museum no. 001679N000000002) (fig.2). According to the Records of the Qing Imperial Workshops (Qinggong zaobanchu huoji dang) vol. 32, the twenty-second year of the Qianlong reign, the Eunuch Hu Shijie submitted a gold-and-silver-inlaid quaterfoil box containing eight rhinoceros horn rings. Then he transmitted the imperial decree, stating that the emperor ordered eight more zitan quatrefoil boxes with the cover decorated with Eight Immortals and Shoulao, encircled by a band of keyfret pattern and seasonal landscape scenes. The current box matches the description in the record and was very likely manufactured under this imperial order.