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Lot Essay
No other gold-ground champlevé enamelled boxes appear to have been published, although an altar garniture was included in the exhibition, Great National Treasures of China, illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 56-58, where comparable bowls with a slightly different finish are illustrated, nos. 52-53; and also a baluster vase sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 28 April, 1996, no. 24.
Melons with their numerous seeds provide the rebus gua die mian mian, 'may you have everlasting generations of sons and grandsons'. As such their forms are rendered with the use of various media such as the bamboo boxes illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Forbidden City Publish House, 2002, nos. 34 and 35; a similarly shaped box and cover of boxwood, Masterpieces of Chinese Miniature Crafts in the National Palace Museum, Gakken, Japan, 1996, no. 14; and a lobed melon-shaped gold lacquer box from the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 6, Qing, no. 150. Compare also two related ivory carvings, the first a mother-of-pearl embellished ivory box and cover sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 27 April 1997, lot 31; and a melon-form ivory carving on a matching stand illustrated in Treasures of China - A Collection of Precious Treasures of the Palace Museums of Taipei and Peking, Commercial Press, Taiwan, p. 504, no. 150.
The melon motif also found favour in ceramics and works of art, cf. a blue and white charger decorated on the interior with melons growing on vines, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han and Qing Dynasties, the Chang Foundation, 1990, no. 125; and on a double-gourd glass snuff bottle in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in Biyanhu, Commerical Press, no. 11.
Melons with their numerous seeds provide the rebus gua die mian mian, 'may you have everlasting generations of sons and grandsons'. As such their forms are rendered with the use of various media such as the bamboo boxes illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Forbidden City Publish House, 2002, nos. 34 and 35; a similarly shaped box and cover of boxwood, Masterpieces of Chinese Miniature Crafts in the National Palace Museum, Gakken, Japan, 1996, no. 14; and a lobed melon-shaped gold lacquer box from the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 6, Qing, no. 150. Compare also two related ivory carvings, the first a mother-of-pearl embellished ivory box and cover sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 27 April 1997, lot 31; and a melon-form ivory carving on a matching stand illustrated in Treasures of China - A Collection of Precious Treasures of the Palace Museums of Taipei and Peking, Commercial Press, Taiwan, p. 504, no. 150.
The melon motif also found favour in ceramics and works of art, cf. a blue and white charger decorated on the interior with melons growing on vines, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han and Qing Dynasties, the Chang Foundation, 1990, no. 125; and on a double-gourd glass snuff bottle in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in Biyanhu, Commerical Press, no. 11.