Lot Essay
This rare form of box can be seen in another closely comparable three-colour Jiajing-marked peach-shaped box and cover decorated with two phoenix chasing a 'flaming pearl' exhibited at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000 Years of Lacquer, 1993, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 55 where it is noted that the peach form is synonymous with longevity and would therefore have particularly appealed to the Jiajing Emperor's obsession with the quest for immortality. Similar carving, particularly in the rendering of the phoenix, can be found on a Jiajing-marked compressed box and cover in Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated in Gugong Bowu Yuancang diaoqi, Beijing, 1985, no. 181; and on a Jiajing domed jar and cover exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, Carved Lacquer and illustrated in the catalogue, p. 131, no. 188.