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Lot Essay
A very similar box and cover of the same period is illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing 1984, pl.152 and 153, the shape is very close and even if the panels have different decorations, the central motif of both covers represents Immortals ; another one of very close shape and size is illustrated in Zhong Guo QiQi Qianji, vol.5, published by Fujiang meishu chu ban she, 1995, p.172 ; Compare also with a box and cover of a slightly different shape and different patterns, from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections : Lacquerware, published by the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China 1987, p.113, pl.110 ; another one, of octagonal shape but of very close decoration with figures, pavilions, trees and rivers was part of the Collection of Mr and Mrs Fritz Low-Beer, Flushing, New York, published in D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Arts de la Chine, Office du Livre, Fribourg 1963, p.345, pl.161 and now at the Linden Museum of Stuttgart, no. OA.20.763L ; The shape of this box with eight bow-shaped lobes, resembling the outline of an eight-petalled flower, is rarer than that with simple arc-shaped lobes popular in this period. This was a more complex form both to make and to decorate. The current example has been particularly skilfully rendered with the decoration on the walls of both the base and cover depicted as continuous scenes, irrespective of the complex lobing