A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER SQUARE BOX AND COVER

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR AND HEDWIG WORCH

Details

A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER SQUARE BOX AND COVER
QIANLONG INSCRIBED SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

With indented corners, the cover carved in high relief with a pattern of flying fish leaping amidst a dense ground of swirling waves, repeated on the sides, all within narrow borders of Greek-key pattern, interior and base lacquered in black, the nianhao on the base highlighted in gilding, with a gilt-highlighted four-character mark Fei yu bao he ('flying fish precious box') inscribed inside the cover, chips--10¼in. (26cm.) square

Lot Essay

This box with its added four-character inscription appears to be one from a group of similarly incised lacquer objects, produced to imperial order, and assigned a specific name by the Emperor Qianlong. For another example from this group see the square box with a pattern of horses on a dense ground of waves and incised with the mark zema baohe in the Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, England, included in the Inaugural Exhibition, 1993, Catalogue, vol. 2, no. 326. A box inscribed with a mark that translates as "Golden Box of Flying Dragons" is illustrated in The Art of the Dragon, Boston, 1988, pl. 143-144; and a small circular box with a four-character mark reading "Treasure box with dragon pattern" was included in the exhibition, The Minor Arts of China, Spink & Son Ltd, 1983, London, Catalogue no. 4