The gentle scene of birds and flowers reflects one of the Qianlong Emperor’s favoured themes in jade carving, the other being archaism. Craftsmen working in the imperial jade workshops were encouraged to model their designs after archaic bronzes and court paintings and they sought to capture a level of naturalism in jade carving that was equal to that achieved in painting with ink and brush on paper. The scene of birds perched gracefully on flowering branches can be seen to have been inspired by flower paintings of the Song period and the carver successfully captures the different textures of the varying elements.

Compare a slightly smaller box of this type, carved with a similar floral scene on the cover and the bajixiang on the sides, included in the exhibition A Romance of Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 108. Related bird and flower scenes were also employed on various other jade objects; for example see a moon-shape vase and cover in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Chinese Jades Throughout the Ages: Connoisseurship of Chinese Jades, vol. 12, Hong Kong, 1997, pl. 24; and a circular panel depicting a bat amongst flowers on one side, also included in the exhibition A Romance of Jade from the De An Tang Collection, op. cit., cat. no. 25.

Further boxes of this form include one carved with a stylised shou medallion surrounded by five bats, from the T.B. Kitson collection, sold twice in our London rooms, 30th May 1961, lot 428, and 24th February 1970, lot 116, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1519; and another with a ‘double happiness’ character on the cover, sold at Christie’s New York, 15th September 2011, lot 1004.