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拍品专文
This item is made of a type of Dalbergia wood which is subject to CITES export/import restrictions since 2 January 2017. This item can only be shipped to addresses within Hong Kong or collected from our Hong Kong saleroom and office unless a CITES re-export permit is granted. Please contact the department for further information.
A pair of closely related and intact huanghuali compound cabinets carved with similar dragons as the principle motif, measuring 113 in. (287 cm.) in height, was sold at China Guardian, 20 November 2010, lot 2105. It is mentioned that in the 1950s, a massive cabinet decorated with dragons amidst clouds was recorded to be in the possession of the Beijng Harwood Furniture Factory. It is possible the cited Beijing factory example is the present pair of cabinets, and that it had been altered at the time due to economic circumstances and to accommodate the size of contemporary households.
The theme of the decoration shows two dragons amongst waves. The upper dragon represents the emperor, while it is likely that the lower dragon represents the crown prince, who is receiving instruction from his father. Parallels can be drawn between this design and the famous hanging scroll on silk, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, entitled, Spring's peaceful message, which was painted by the Italian Jesuit missionary artist Giuseppe Castiglione, known at the Chinese court as Lang Shining (illustrated in The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 30-31, no. 2). The painting shows a younger man bending slightly from the waist in a gesture of respect, and receiving a floral spray from an older man. The majority of scholars believe that this painting is intended to depict Prince Hongli (the future Qianlong emperor) receiving the sprig of blossom from his father, the Yongzheng emperor. Certainly the Qianlong emperor identified himself as the young man in an inscription which he wrote on the painting in 1782, when he was 71 years old. The painting suggest the respect of the young prince for his father, the emperor, and possibly anticipates the transfer of the mandate of heaven and the responsibility for the good of the empire that went with it. Assuming that this is the correct interpretation of the decoration on the cabinets, then we can speculate that these panels were once part of a larger compound cabinet ordered by the emperor to commemorate some special occasion, possibly a birthday celebration as suggested by the additional motifs of peach sprays and bats.
A pair of closely related and intact huanghuali compound cabinets carved with similar dragons as the principle motif, measuring 113 in. (287 cm.) in height, was sold at China Guardian, 20 November 2010, lot 2105. It is mentioned that in the 1950s, a massive cabinet decorated with dragons amidst clouds was recorded to be in the possession of the Beijng Harwood Furniture Factory. It is possible the cited Beijing factory example is the present pair of cabinets, and that it had been altered at the time due to economic circumstances and to accommodate the size of contemporary households.
The theme of the decoration shows two dragons amongst waves. The upper dragon represents the emperor, while it is likely that the lower dragon represents the crown prince, who is receiving instruction from his father. Parallels can be drawn between this design and the famous hanging scroll on silk, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, entitled, Spring's peaceful message, which was painted by the Italian Jesuit missionary artist Giuseppe Castiglione, known at the Chinese court as Lang Shining (illustrated in The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 30-31, no. 2). The painting shows a younger man bending slightly from the waist in a gesture of respect, and receiving a floral spray from an older man. The majority of scholars believe that this painting is intended to depict Prince Hongli (the future Qianlong emperor) receiving the sprig of blossom from his father, the Yongzheng emperor. Certainly the Qianlong emperor identified himself as the young man in an inscription which he wrote on the painting in 1782, when he was 71 years old. The painting suggest the respect of the young prince for his father, the emperor, and possibly anticipates the transfer of the mandate of heaven and the responsibility for the good of the empire that went with it. Assuming that this is the correct interpretation of the decoration on the cabinets, then we can speculate that these panels were once part of a larger compound cabinet ordered by the emperor to commemorate some special occasion, possibly a birthday celebration as suggested by the additional motifs of peach sprays and bats.