A RARE RETICULATED POLYCHROME LACQUER BOX AND COVER MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG

of compressed globular shape supported on a short foot, the pierced domed cover brightly painted and enhanced with gilt, depicting in the central medallion a red flower and other smaller florets borne on a network of foliate scrolls and palmette leaves, all encircled by a brown-ground gilt key-fret band, the sides of the cover and the box similarly decorated with florets and leafy scrolls, bordered by brown-ground gilt trellis bands at the rims and foot, the interior gilt, the base applied with brown lacquer and finely painted with a leafy spray of succulent peaches below a gilt horizontal four-character reign mark
10.1 cm, 4 in.

Provenance:
This luxuriantly decorated box and cover, skilfully reticulated with a design of flowers, foliate scrolls and palmette leaves, is a rare work of art encapsulating the Yongzheng court’s tendency towards innovation. The articulation of the succulent peaches on the base, suspended from leafy sprays, is reminiscent of that on a Yongzheng mark and period enamel box and cover from Alice Boney, illustrated in Fang Jing Pei et. al., Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, New York, 1997, fig. 108, and sold in these rooms, 7th October 2015, lot 3783.

For a larger Yongzheng period gilded lacquer box of closely related form, but without reticulation, but decorated with similar foliate scrolls in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Harmony and Integrity. The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, 2009, cat. no. II-96. The same unusual Yongzheng four-character mark, written in a horizontal line, is also seen on enamelled works of art, including a black-ground box imitating Japanese inro, illustrated ibid., cat. no. II-92.