AN EXQUISITE BEIJING ENAMEL MINIATURE TIERED BOX AND COVER

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

細節

AN EXQUISITE BEIJING ENAMEL MINIATURE TIERED BOX AND COVER
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Of rectangular section with canted corners, the box is delicately enamelled with stippled brushwork for fine shading, on the cover with shepherds and their grazing flock in an idyllic landscape and on the underside with a maiden and an elderly man in conversation, the first tier box painted with two crabs among flowers and leaves and on the reverse with a gourd growing amidst prunus, the bottom box embellished with carp swimming through water weeds, and the base enamelled with the reign mark inscribed on a large peach, all supported on tab feet, the yellow-ground sides decorated with floral scrolls (enamel losses overpainted)
1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm.) high, box

拍品專文

The enamelling on the box is superbly rendered, with much attention paid to the small areas of decoration, including the interiors and bases of each tier. The fine stippling to give a chiaroscuro effect is typical of the work found at the Imperial workshops. Hence, the painting style and composition of this box suggest that the artist was trained in the Western manner and was most probably executed by a Jesuit working for the court. Compare the style of the vignettes on the enamel box with that on a Qianlong-marked porcelain box in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 36. The reign mark on the base of the present box is unusually inscribed over a finely enamelled peach, and this composition is also found on a Yongzheng bowl, where the four-character ruby-enamel mark is painted over a peach, illustrated ibid., pl. 21.