A pair of three-color lacquer 'immortals' boxes and covers, Qing dynasty, 18th century

12 septembre 2016

A pair of three-color lacquer 'immortals' boxes and covers, Qing dynasty, 18th century

Lot 353. A pair of three-color lacquer 'immortals' boxes and covers, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

each of peach shape with a flat base, the cover crisply carved in varying depth of relief, depicting one of the 'Eight Immortals' Tie Guaili holding a double gourd issuing vapor to the sky, the other depicting Han Xiangzi playing a flute, accompanied by an attendant holding a lingzhi, set within a landscape scene detailed with craggy rockwork and gnarled overhanging trees, reserved on three different diaper grounds representing the earth, water, and sky, the sides intricately carved through layers of red, green and ochre with a frieze of peaches in high relief borne on leafy branches against a leiwen ground, the box similarly decorated with fruiting peaches, the interior lacquered black and the base red lacquered (4). Lengths 5 1/8 in., 13 cm

Provenance: European Private Collection (by repute).

Notes: Compare a similar box and cover in cinnabar lacquer, from the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, carved with Zhang Guolao in a landscape, illustration in Masterpieces of Chinese Carved Lacquer Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971, cat. no. 45. Another related example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, carved with Zhang Guolao riding a donkey over crashing waves, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 67.

See also a pair of closely related Qianlong period polychrome lacquer boxes and covers, one carved with Han Xiangzi, the other with Han Zhongli, sold in our London rooms, 24th February 1976, lot 84. A slightly larger Qianlong period cinnabar lacquer box and cover of this type, decorated with scholars on a terrace by a lake, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 630, and another cinnabar lacquer example sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 491.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 13 sept. 2016, 10:30 AM