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Lot Essay
The current box set exemplifies the ingenious combination of aesthetics and functionality in vessels made for the Imperial court. The set is devised intelligently to ensure it is easily portable with the boxes fastened securely in the correct position by having two interlocking pins securing the top cover to the overhead handle. It would have been used as a picnic box containing utensils for Imperial members, possibly commissioned by the Imperial kitchen.
The Beijing Palace Museum has a very similar double-gourd box set of approximately the same size, similarly constructed encompassing three boxes wrapped with woven bamboo and an overhead handle fastened by two gilt pins. Attributed to the Kangxi period by the Museum, this set contains the original set of utensils including dishes, bowls, chopsticks and a spoon, providing us with the context of how the current box set would have been used within the palace during the Qing dynasty. The Palace Museum example was included in the exhibition Qing Legacies: The Sumptuous Art of Imperial Packaging, Macau, 2000, pl. 75 (figs. 1 & 2).
The Beijing Palace Museum has a very similar double-gourd box set of approximately the same size, similarly constructed encompassing three boxes wrapped with woven bamboo and an overhead handle fastened by two gilt pins. Attributed to the Kangxi period by the Museum, this set contains the original set of utensils including dishes, bowls, chopsticks and a spoon, providing us with the context of how the current box set would have been used within the palace during the Qing dynasty. The Palace Museum example was included in the exhibition Qing Legacies: The Sumptuous Art of Imperial Packaging, Macau, 2000, pl. 75 (figs. 1 & 2).