A FINE AND RARE SPINACH-GREEN AND WHITE JADE BOX AND COVER - QIANLONG/JIAQING PERIOD (1736-1820)

The ogival box and cover are carved around the curved sides with four bracket lobes, each with two panels carved in relief with floral sprays, the top of the cover inset with an intricately carved and reticulated white jade lobed panel depicting four dragons intertwined with cloud-scrolls and confronted on a central flaming pearl, the stone of spinach-green tone with darker speckles. 6 3/4 in. (17 cm.) wide, box - Price Realized: HK$1,807,500 ($232,631)

Lot Notes: A box of nearly identical design from the collection of Mrs Samuel T. Peters was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot 706. Compare also with two spinach-green jade circular boxes and covers, the first decorated with cranes among pine trees, inlaid with a white jade plaque within the medallion on the cover, included in the Empress Place exhibition, Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty, Treasures from the Shanyang Palace Museum, China, Singapore, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 97. The other spinach-green jade box is inlaid with a white jade plaque decorated with a dragon amidst clouds, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, Qing dynasty, vol. 6, 1991, no. 104. A similarly decorated petal-shaped box and cover also from the Palace Museum, is illustrated ibid., no. 105.

Christie's Hong Kong. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 27 May 2008