Lot 512. An Yixing stoneware 'ribbon sash' box and cover by Chen Hanwen and an imperial zitan box and cover, Qing dynasty, early 18th century, 11.7 and 12.4 cm, 4 5/8  and 4 7/8  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 875,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's. 

of rectangular form, finely carved to the exterior in relief with archaistic kui dragon scrolls with a beribboned sash tied at the centre, impressed to the base with a square seal reading Chen Hanwen, the stoneware of a textured olive-brown tone mottled with black and golden flecks, the zitan box and cover of oval form, carved with identical archaistic and 'ribbon sash' carved decoration 

Provenance: Hugh Moss Ltd, Hong Kong, 1977 (the Yixing box).

Literature: Paul Moss, 'I-Hsing-Tea-Taste', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, vol. 10, no. 3, September 1978, p. 10, fig. 18 (the Yixing box).

Note: It is extremely fortuitous to find an Yixing stoneware box of this rare form, together with an Imperial zitan box of identical decoration, which was found separately by the collector some years later. All Yixing desk objects are rare, and those made in imitation of other materials are even more so. It is impressed with the mark of Chen Hanwen, an Yixing potter active in the early 18th century. Literary evidence on Chen is scattered and incomplete, although he is mentioned in the Jiaqing edition of the Yixing County Gazetteer, where it is recorded that ‘Chen Hanwen lived in the Yongzheng reign. It was said that he was the son of Chen Ziqi. He was expert at making teapots and particularly skilled in handling clay. The coherence and elegant simplicity of his works were comparable to those of the masters of former generations’ (translated in Themes and Variations. The Zisha Pottery of Chen Mingyuan, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1997, p. 38). Lu Minghua in ibid., notes the similarities between the biography of Chen Hanwen and Chen Mingyuan, one of the best known Yixing potters of the Qing dynasty, and suggests that they were either the same person, or relatives of the same generation, p. 39.

The Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors were fascinated by objects that simulate other materials, the former particularly drawn to Japanese lacquer. A rare Yongzheng reign-marked lacquer tea tray influenced by Japanese prototypes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Evelyn S. Rawski and Jessica Rawson (editors), China. The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, London, 2005, cat. no.185

The knotted cloth is a Japanese concept reflecting Japanese furoshiki packaging customs. This decoration, simulating a textile wrapping around the vessel appears on a variety of media made in the imperial workshops of the Qianlong Emperor, including porcelain, metal-bodied wares with painted enamels, cloisonné, glass and wood or lacquer. Examples include a Qianlong reign-marked metal-bodied jar painted in enamels with a knotted cloth in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the exhibition Splendours of China's Forbidden City. The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, The Field Museum, Chicago, 2004, cat. no. 336;  a porcelain zun-shaped vase painted with a pink-coloured knotted ribbon illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 40, and a Qianlong enamelled glass vase modelled in the form of a yellow brocade bag with a pink sash at the neck looped in a knot, from the collections of Prince Gong Yixin, A.W. Bahr and Paul and Helen Bernat,  sold in these rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 77, and now in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, included in the exhibition China. The Three Emperors 1662-1795, op.cit., cat. no. 99.  For examples of Japanese lacquer boxes see those included in the exhibition, Toyo no urushi kogei (Oriental Lacquer Arts), Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 297. 

The closest published example to the current zitan box and cover is another example in zitan, similarly carved with archaistic designs in low levels of relief, exhibited in Jinxiang yuzhi: Qingdai gongting baozhuang yishu/Qing Legacies: The Sumptuous Art of Imperial Packaging, Macao Museum of Art, Macau, 2000, cat. no. 47. A Chinese lacquer box with the knotted design was also included in the exhibition Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty, op. cit., cat. no. 161. 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 01 Jun 2017