Lot 3618. A fine and rare bronze-imitation gold and silver-decorated box and cover, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 8.4 cm., 3 1/4  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000  HKD. Lot sold 1,625,000 HKD. © Sotheby's

of circular section, the box and cover glazed overall save for the flanges with a brilliant café-au-lait glaze, the cover delicately decorated in gold and silver over the glaze with a central stylised floret surrounded by a border of dots and ruyi heads, all within a geometric frieze and a further band of dots, the exterior of the box similarly exquisitely picked out in gold and silver with a band of ruyi-heads alternating with small rings above the short foot, each ruyi-head below a silver dotted floral motif, the base inscribed in gold with a six-character seal mark within the gilt footrim.

Provenance: Sotheby's Paris, 18th December 2012, lot 88

Note: Finely decorated with stylised patterns derived from archaic jades and metal wares, this delicately potted box and cover is rare for its imitation of gilt-bronze. The ever-improving technical ability of the Jingdezhen potters under the directorship of Tang Ying, Superintendent of the Imperial kilns during the Qianlong reign, triggered a number of ambitious ventures including the re-creation of various materials in porcelain, such as bronze, lacquer and wood. Many of these objects, including the present box, were produced to surprise and designed to be picked up and handled; not merely for display. Although the technique was already developed in the early 18th century, wares of this type were made in large quantities on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor, reflecting his particular fondness for such pieces.

Compare a slightly smaller box of this form and design, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, found on the Museum’s website www.dpm.org.cn/shtml/117/@/4667; and a tea-dust glazed box decorated with a similar gilt design, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch’ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 145 (left). For an earlier box simulating bronze see a Yongzheng reign-marked example illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Tianjin, 1993, pl. 142.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong, 07 april 2015