A TURQUOISE-GROUND FAMILLE-ROSE 'BIRD AND FLOWERS' BOX AND COVER QING DYNASTY, GUANGXU PERIOD

of globular form, vibrantly enameled in the Dayazhai manner, the domed cover with a songbird resting on a flowering branch with blooms of hydrangea, begonia, and prunus in vibrant shades of pink, blue, and green, all reserved on a turquoise ground, the box similarly decorated and with a flitting butterfly, the interior and recessed base glazed white, the latter with a four-character mark in iron red reading Yongqing Changchun ('Eternal joy and everlasting spring') (2)
Diameter 9 5/8 in., 24.3 cm

Provenance:
Compare a very similar box and cover sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot 4260. The present box belongs to a group of porcelains associated with the Dowager Empress Cixi, often inscribed with Dayazhai or Yongqing changchun marks, or both. For examples of similarly enameled turquoise-ground wares in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Guanyang yuci: gugong bowuyuancang qingdai zhici guanyang yu yuyao ciqi [Official Designs and Imperial Porcelain: The Palace Museum's Collection of Official Porcelain Designs and Porcelains from Imperial Kilns of the Qing Dynasty] Beijing, 2007, pp 206-209.