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Lot Essay
The motifs used to decorate this box and others like it are all very auspicious. The main character, chun (spring) on the cover is a metaphor for eternal youth. Combined with the overlaying roundel of Shoulao, the god of Longevity, who symbolizes long life, the box would have represented wishes for eternal youth. These combined with the other imagery: the dragons amidst clouds, the rays rising from the bowl of 'treasures' and the Buddhist emblems arrayed around the sides also add to the auspicious nature of the box.
Qing dynasty boxes of this design were inspired by Jiajing period (1522-1566) examples like the one included in the Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 24 September - 21 November 1993, pp. 120-1, no. 61. These boxes were so admired by the Qianlong Emperor that he ordered many copies during his reign. They were used to hold food presented as a ceremonial gift at the lunar new year or for birthdays.
This pair of boxes appear to be some of the largest of Qianlong date, and just slightly smaller than the box (52.5 cm.) with Qianlong mark in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 90. The shape of the bowl on the cover, in particular, is very similar to that on another large box (44 cm.) in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated by M. C. Beach, "The Freer Gallery of Art", Orientations, May 1993, p. 69, fig. 6. And another large (44.8 cm.) box (44.8 cm.) was included in the Special Exhibition of Covered Boxes from East Asia, Izumishi Kuboso Museum, Japan, 1984, p. 72, no. 110. Like the present box, all of the aforementioned also have similar figural panels around the sides.
Qing dynasty boxes of this design were inspired by Jiajing period (1522-1566) examples like the one included in the Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 24 September - 21 November 1993, pp. 120-1, no. 61. These boxes were so admired by the Qianlong Emperor that he ordered many copies during his reign. They were used to hold food presented as a ceremonial gift at the lunar new year or for birthdays.
This pair of boxes appear to be some of the largest of Qianlong date, and just slightly smaller than the box (52.5 cm.) with Qianlong mark in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 90. The shape of the bowl on the cover, in particular, is very similar to that on another large box (44 cm.) in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated by M. C. Beach, "The Freer Gallery of Art", Orientations, May 1993, p. 69, fig. 6. And another large (44.8 cm.) box (44.8 cm.) was included in the Special Exhibition of Covered Boxes from East Asia, Izumishi Kuboso Museum, Japan, 1984, p. 72, no. 110. Like the present box, all of the aforementioned also have similar figural panels around the sides.