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Lot Essay
The cross-section of ingot shape with each of the six prominent corners protruding in a semi-circular form and carved with a stylised shou character on the upper-surface of the cover, evenly surrounding a main panel exquisitely carved through the cinnabar-red layer to a dark-green diaper-ground, depicting auspicious items including nandina berries emerging from a baluster vase, firecrackers, peaches, bats, a tasselled musical stone, an arrangement of miscellaneous items placed within a bamboo-form double vase, and a tray of water-chestnuts supported on a cabriole stand, the sides finely decorated with rectangular panels of differing flowers growing from ornamental rocks, divided by six columned sides carved with a stylised key-fret pattern, supported on a stand of conforming shape carved with a meander of flowers on the rounded apron forming six ruyi-head feet.
This unusual irregular form with its compressed sides is taken from a silver ingot, a tradable currency during the Ming and Qing periods. Its shape appeared in early lacquerwares, see a Yuan dynasty mother-of-pearl inlaid box in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, accession number: B83M3.a-.b; another example of this form, see a Qiangjin and polychrome lacquer of the Jiajing period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 194, no. 152. Ingot-shaped boxes also appeared in ceramic form during the mid-Ming dynasty, for an example see a Wanli period blue and white ingot-shaped ‘dragon’ box and cover in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, accession number: guci 017844.
Compare to boxes of multiple tiers for storage with the composition of objects carved on the upper-surface, see a carved cinnabar lacquer ingot-shaped box dating to the Qing dynasty in the Palace Museum, Beijing, accession number: gu 00110727; another example in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, a polychrome Tianqi ingot-shaped three-tiered box of the Qianlong period, accession number: B60M128.
This unusual irregular form with its compressed sides is taken from a silver ingot, a tradable currency during the Ming and Qing periods. Its shape appeared in early lacquerwares, see a Yuan dynasty mother-of-pearl inlaid box in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, accession number: B83M3.a-.b; another example of this form, see a Qiangjin and polychrome lacquer of the Jiajing period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 194, no. 152. Ingot-shaped boxes also appeared in ceramic form during the mid-Ming dynasty, for an example see a Wanli period blue and white ingot-shaped ‘dragon’ box and cover in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, accession number: guci 017844.
Compare to boxes of multiple tiers for storage with the composition of objects carved on the upper-surface, see a carved cinnabar lacquer ingot-shaped box dating to the Qing dynasty in the Palace Museum, Beijing, accession number: gu 00110727; another example in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, a polychrome Tianqi ingot-shaped three-tiered box of the Qianlong period, accession number: B60M128.