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Lot Essay
Containing precious substances and objects, Yue ware covered boxes where highly treasured in ancient times. Their higher status is reflected in their lavish decoration and elegant forms, and the fine relief carving, such as that seen on the current example, is one of the most sophisticated and expensive techniques used.
A Yue covered box decorated with a peony motif, but with a band of curved incisions surrounding the central roundel, in the Art Institute of Chicago, is illustrated by Yutaka Mino and K. R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986, pp. 132-133, no. 49. Compare, also, a fragment of a similar Yue ‘peony’ box found at the Yue kiln site in Shangyu Xian, illustrated ibid. p. 132, fig. 49b.
A Yue covered box decorated with a peony motif, but with a band of curved incisions surrounding the central roundel, in the Art Institute of Chicago, is illustrated by Yutaka Mino and K. R. Tsiang, Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1986, pp. 132-133, no. 49. Compare, also, a fragment of a similar Yue ‘peony’ box found at the Yue kiln site in Shangyu Xian, illustrated ibid. p. 132, fig. 49b.