CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, ÉPOQUE QIANLONG (1736-1795)

The motif of multiple shou (longevity) characters on this exquisite box conveys the auspicious message ‘countless years of long life without limit’. During the Kangxi period, a small group of massive blue and white ‘wanshou’ porcelain vases was made at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, on which 9999 shou characters and a single wan character were inscribed, suggesting they may have been made as Imperial birthday presents. One such example of a Kangxi blue and white wanshou vase was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3419.
Polychrome lacquer boxes decorated with 'one hundred Shou' characters are very rare. This present lot may be compared with the nearly identical example of 'one hundred Shou' box and cover (36 cm) decorated with a band of bats among clouds around the central wan medallion sold in Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 April 2011, lot 2814. See a similar box carved with a shou character surrounded by peony blossoms on the flat cover and lotus scrolls between bat borders, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Edward F. Strange, Catalogue of Chinese Lacquer, London, 1925, pl. 1 and another example carved all over with bats and shou characters on a wave ground around a central Shou character, sold in Christie's New York, 6th May 1980, lot 235.