A LARGE AND RARE CHINESE THREE-COLOURED LACQUER 'PRUNUS' BOX AND COVER

A LARGE AND RARE CHINESE THREE-COLOURED LACQUER 'PRUNUS' BOX AND COVER
QIANLONG 1736-95

Of mallow form, the exterior of the box and cover decorated with prunus blossom and cracked ice carved through layers of red and green lacquer, revealing an ochre ground decorated with low-relief diaper, all contained within red lacquer bands of key frets and lappets to the flat top, to the rims and to the straight foot. The interior and the base lacquered black, the cover with a paper label to the interior inscribed san shi ba hao xiang di yi hao, 40.5cm. (2)

Provenance: an English private collection, Surrey, UK, purchased from Ben Janssens Oriental Art, 2nd May 2004; sold on behalf of Parkinson's UK.

The exceptional quality of the box and cover offered here is significant and associates this piece with the production of the Imperial workshops. Indeed, there is an identical example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Guyong Bowu Yuancang diaoqi (Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum), pl.228. The Imperial nature of this piece is further supported by the presence of the yellow label to the inside of the cover, reading san shi ba hao xiang di yi hao (first number of thirty-eight boxes). Labels of this type were traditionally used to record pieces in the Imperial collection.

The decoration on this piece, termed bing wei wen (prunus blossom on a cracked-ice ground), is unusual on lacquerware and again closely relates this piece to the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing. It also features on two other identical box and cover, both fitted with nine lacquer trays, one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors: Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, p.164, no.181, and one in the National Museum of China, included in the 2023 exhibition Guimao Jinan 2023 Spring Exhibition. A closely related example, with the variant of a band of ruyi-heads in place of the lappets, is in the Toyko National Museum, included in the 1998 exhibition Jixiang, Auspicious Motifs in Chinese Art, cat.242. It is a highly symbolic pattern that references the advent of Spring and by extension the concept of rebirth, the prunus being the first blossom to burst into flower at the end of Winter. As the Chinese festivity that falls at this time of the year, during the months of January and February, is the lunar New Year, the pattern of prunus and cracked ice is often found on gifts exchange during this festivity.

清乾隆 剔彩冰梅紋瓣式盒
附標籤：三十八號箱第一號

來源：英國薩里郡私人收藏，2004年5月2日購於倫敦古董商Ben Janssens Oriental Art。成交金額將全數捐贈英國帕金森基金會。