An extremely rare Imperial gold painted lacquer cabinet, China, six-character mark and period of Wanli. Photo Nagel Auktionen

Of rectangular form, meticulously painted in gold and red against a black lacquered ground with twenty playful Buddhistic lions frolicking amid lush and dense lotus scroll while chasing brocade balls, all centering on the stile and baiting escutcheon and pulls, opening to a red lacquer interior with two shelves and a pair of addorsed leaves, the sides similarly painted each with twelve lions, the back side painted in gold with magpie birds surrounded by a prunus tree, peonies and rocks, all below a horizontal cartouche containing a six-character reign mark - 178x101x52 cm. Estimate 800 000 / 1 200 000 €

Provenance: Private collection Rhineland, bougt from Sotheby's London, 5.4.1984, Lot 106, published Chinese Furniture, Michael Beurdeley, Tokyo, 1979, p. 124

The mate to this cabinet was offered by Sotheby's Hongkong 8.4.2009, 'Ming Imperial Furnitures from the Biegucang Collection', Lot 1628

A comparable 3-meter high cabinet painted in the same technique with red and gilt dragons amongst scrolling lotus on black ground, with a Wanli reign mark and of the period, in the Guimet Museum in Paris, is illustrated in Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 144; and another, but without a reign mark, was sold at Christie`s London, 30th October 1989, lot 202, and another compound cabinet with a hat chest and similarly painted with gilt dragons is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. See also another, but with a removable hat box upper compartment and decorated in gilt with pavilions in a mountainous landscape, also with a Wanli reign mark and of the period that sold at Sotheby's New York, 21-22nd September, 2005, lot 359

Nagel Auktionen. Asian Art, 2013/05/10. http://www.auction.de