18TH-19TH CENTURY

Twin cabinets such as the present lot were very popular items of furniture during the Qing dynasty. Another cabinet of similar form, but decorated with scholars in landscapes, dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795) is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and is illustrated in East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1991, p. 113, no. 47. Another example with a single drawer across the top and a more elaborate interior composition of two larger drawers and four smaller drawers is illustrated in The Complete Collections of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, no. 45.

Compare a cabinet of similar construction and inscribed with an Imperial poem, sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1219, and another cabinet carved with precious objects from the Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata, Japan, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3576.