QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

It would appear that only two other carved lacquer peach-shaped boxes and covers preserved with their original conforming peach-shaped boxes are known. An identical polychrome lacquer box and cover was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2011, lot 3068. The only other example, in the Shanghai Museum, is also of Qianlong date, but in carved red lacquer only, and is illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 6, Qing, Beijing, 1993, no. 219. The cover of the Shanghai box is carved with a slightly different arrangement of the same design giving more prominence to the dragons and less to the central chun character, and the sides are decorated with a more formal arrangement of fruiting branches contained within panels alternating with bats. The smaller red lacquer boxes are carved with immortals in landscape scenes and are housed in a red lacquer tray with similar gilt decoration.

Other than the example sold at Christie's Hong Kong and the other in the Shanghai Museum, only three other similarly sized peach-shaped boxes of this design appear to have been published, and none of these contain further boxes. The first was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, lot 2866; a second was sold at Christie's London, 17 June 1985, lot 417; and the third was sold at Christie's New York, 23-24 February 1982, lot 509. A smaller peach-shaped box of the same design was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2642.

More commonly known are the circular polychrome lacquer boxes with identical design on the top panel but with different borders, such as the Qianlong-marked box in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by H. Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 90; one, also with a Qianlong mark, illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong exhibition catalogue, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 76, where it is compared with the Jiajing prototype of this design, no. 61; another Qianlong-marked box in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Special Exhibition of Palace Lacquer Objects, Taipei, 1981, no. 67, is also illustrated together with the Jiajing version, no. 37; one illustrated in the catalogue of the Shoto Museum of Art 10th anniversary exhibition, Chinese Lacquerware, 1991, no. 88; and another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 8, Beijing, 1996, Lacquer, pl. 172.

The motifs decorating this box and others like it are highly auspicious. The overall imagery conveyed would suggest these boxes were made to commemorate a special birthday celebration, either commissioned by or for the Emperor. The character chun (spring) on the cover is also a metaphor for youth. Combined with the overlaying roundel of Shoulao, the god of Longevity, the box would have represented wishes for eternal youth. These combined with the other imagery: the dragons amidst clouds, the rays rising from the bowl of 'treasures', and the peaches arranged around the sides also add to the auspicious nature of the box.

The attributes depicted on the tops of eight of the smaller boxes further reinforce the idea of longevity as each is associated with one of the Eight Daoist Immortals: the fan with Han Zhongli; the gourd and iron crutch with Li Tieguai; the fish drum with Zhang Guolao; the lotus with He Xiangu; the basket of peaches with Lan Caihe; the sword and flywhisk with Lu Dongbin; the pair of beaters with Cao Guojiu; and the flute with Han Xiangzi; and by extension they are symbols of immortality and longevity.