A CINNABAR LACQUER BOX, QIANLONG MARK AND PERIOD

AN IMPERIAL 'CLOUDS AND DRAGON' CINNABAR LACQUER BOX, QIANLONG MARK AND PERIOD
China, between 1771 and 1775. Of quadrilobed form with the cover deftly carved through layers of rich red lacquer with a cartouche enclosing two dragons soaring around a central 'flaming pearl' against a dense ground of tumultuous waves, bordered by a key fret band. The three-dimensional effect and sense of movement was achieved through precise knifework and expert execution.

Provenance: From a German private collection. Acquired before 1930 and thence by descent to the present owner. The family lived in the border town of Gangelt, one of the first German villages invaded by British and American troops in 1944. The house was situated between front lines and suffered from heavy fire for several months, the family was evacuated to Holland during this period. When they came back in spring 1945, the house was significantly damaged and most of its contents destroyed. Miraculously, the present box survived with only very little damage. For this reason, it was kept and safeguarded as a good luck charm in the family ever since.
Condition: Absolutely original condition with some cracks and losses, all well visible on the detail images at www.zacke.at.

Weight: 1,087.4 g
Dimensions: Length 32 cm

Each side decorated with budding and flowering blossoms above further waves, the edges with key-fret bands repeated at the rim skirting the foot of the box, the interior lacquered black, the cover gilt-incised with an inscription reading Yunlong baohe ('clouds and dragon treasure box'), the base with the six-character reign mark.

Notable for its meticulous carving and carefully composed designs of two ferocious scaly dragons against a ground of tumultuous waves, this box belongs to an important group of boxes made during the Qianlong reign. According to the Zaobanchu Archives of the Qing Imperial Household Department, between 1771 and 1775 the Qianlong Emperor ordered the Palace Workshops to produce carved lacquer treasure boxes with specific designs, and their name inscribed on each box (see Yang Yong, 'A Research of Lacquerware Inscriptions from Qianlong Reign', Journal of National Museum of China, no. 6, 2003, p. 680).

Literature comparison: Qianlong mark and period boxes with a yunlong baohe mark include one circular box in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang diaoqi/ Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pl. 316; another from the Florence and Herbert Irving collection, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in the exhibition East Asian Lacquer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, cat. no. 43, where it is noted that the mark "probably corresponded to the entry for the box in the inventory of articles in the imperial household", p. 108; a cylindrical box, in the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, illustrated in Hu Shih-chang and Jade Wilkinson, Chinese Lacquer, Edinburgh, 1998, pl. 30.

Auction result comparison: Compare with a related but significantly smaller box bearing the same inscription at Sotheby's Hong Kong in Roger Keverne - 50 Years in the Trade, 05 October 2016, lot 6, sold for HKD $625,000 and another, circular example, also significantly smaller than the present lot, at Bonham's Hong Kong in Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 3 Dez 2015, lot 32, sold for HKD $900,000.

御制雲龍剔紅蓋盒，乾隆款與年代
中國，1771 至1775間。呈四葉形，盒蓋巧妙地剔紅雕刻花紋與雙龍戲珠龍。波濤滾滾。刀工精湛。

來源：德國私人收藏。購於1930前，自此保存至今。這個家族當時居住在邊境小鎮甘格爾特（Gangelt），這是1944年英美軍隊入侵的首批德國村莊之一。房子位於前線之間，遭受大火數月之久，在此期間全家被疏散到荷蘭 。 當他們1945年春季回來時，房屋已遭到嚴重破壞，大部分物品被毀。 奇蹟般地，目前的盒子倖存下來，只有很小的損壞。 因此，從那時起，它一直作為家庭的好運而被保存和維護。
品相：絕對原始品相，一些開裂和缺損，細圖可見www.zacke.at。

重量：1,087.4 克
尺寸：長32 厘米

拍賣結果比較：一件相似蓋盒2015年12月3日于香港邦翰思《中國陶瓷和工藝品》拍號32，成交價HKD $900.000.