Lot 2709. From the Wang Xing Lou Collection. A fine and extremely rare imitation-lacquer porcelain circular box and cover, Qianlong six-character impressed seal mark and of the period (1736-1795); 12.4 cm diam., box. Price realised HKD 5,292,000 (Estimate HKD 2,800,000 – HKD 3,500,000). © Christie's Image Ltd 2024

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28-29 November 1978, lot 163
Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Porcelain, Enamels and Jade Carvings from the Works of Art Collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, 16 May 1989, lot 47
The Robert Chang Collection, Hong Kong
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong- Imperial Wares from the Robert Chang Collection, 2 November 1999, lot 506.

Literature: Sotheby’s Hong Kong: Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 347
Sotheby’s: Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, no. 160
Ye Peilan and J. Thompson, Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi- Yongzheng- Qianlong, A Selection from The Wang Xing Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2004, pp. 256-257, no. 103

Exhibited: London, The Dorchester International Ceramics Fair, June 1986
Christie’s London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993, cat. no. 41
On loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2003-2020

Note: As porcelain was a medium that was relatively easy to control and decorate to high standards of imperial quality during the 18^th century, it was frequently used to simulate a variety of other works of art such as hardstones, bronzes, cloisonné enamels, wood and lacquer. The present box and cover is exemplary of such innovation of imperial quality.

For a lacquer box and cover possibly served as inspiration to the present lot, see a carved Ming dynasty box with a pavilion amidst a riverscape preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection number xin-00123808. Compare to an imitation lacquer porcelain box with very similar decoration on the cover and sides, and also raised on five-tab feet, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection number gu-00152658.

Compare also to a smaller Qianlong period circular porcelain box in imitation of carved lacquer with prunus branches on a trellis ground, included in the Taipei National Palace Museum Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, and illustrated in its exhibition catalogue, Taipei, 1986, p. 141, no. 114.

Christie's. The Ten Perfections - Qing Imperial Ceramics from the Wang Xing Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 30 may 2024