A RARE GUANGZHOU (CANTON) ENAMEL-INSET PAINTED RED LACQUER SLOPING BUREAU ON LATER STAND Qianlong

A RARE GUANGZHOU (CANTON) ENAMEL-INSET PAINTED RED LACQUER SLOPING BUREAU ON LATER STAND
Qianlong
The bureau with six exterior enamel panels of differing shape with painted decoration, The massive back panel, the top and the two shaped side panels each decorated with garden scenes of blue rockwork, flowers and birds, including mandarin ducks and pheasants, peony and magnolia, the sloping panel at the front decorated with composite floral and fruit scrolling including, peony, hibiscus and chrysanthemum flowers and fruiting gourds, melons, finger citrus, peaches and pomegranate, and similarly decorated to the front panel on the lower pull-out drawer between ruyi-cloud lappets, the bureau supported on a Queen Anne style Chinese red lacquer and gilt-decorated stand with cabriole legs.
Bureau: 24in across; 15 1/8in high; and 13 7/8in deep (60.9cm across; 38.3cm high; 36cm deep)
Footnotes:
乾隆時期 珍稀銅胎廣彩裝紅漆寫字枱暨後配桌架

See a similar form of bureau with mirror-back illustrated by Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, 1979, in the chapter entitled 'Furniture in so-called Canton Enamel', pp. 149-154, and illustrated on page 153, no. 206. The panels on the illustrated piece, called a 'toilet casket' presumably because of the mirror that backs the item, follow the exact format of ours and with scenes of a similar type.