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Lot Essay
The Japanese wood box accompanying this lot bears an inscription, and records the lacquer boxes as having been given in August of the third year of the Taisho reign (1912-1925), corresponding to 1914, and were from the personal collection of the Queen Mother Shioken (1849-1914), who was the Empress of the Meiji Emperor (1868-1911) (fig.1).
The exceptional quality of carving on the current boxes are undoubtedly of imperial quality, and the landscapes depicted are very likely inspired by real landscapes near the Forbidden City in Beijing, such as famous ‘Eight Views of Yanjing (Beijing)’, which are captured by an imperial set of eight album leaves painted by the Qianlong-period scholar-official Zhang Ruocheng (1721-1770). In particular, one can find parallels between the boxes and the album leaf ‘Ji Men fei yue’ (Windswept rain at the Ji Gate) (fig. 2), as seen in the gently rolling mountains and small huts nestled among straight towering trees. This album is now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated on the museum website.
The exceptional quality of carving on the current boxes are undoubtedly of imperial quality, and the landscapes depicted are very likely inspired by real landscapes near the Forbidden City in Beijing, such as famous ‘Eight Views of Yanjing (Beijing)’, which are captured by an imperial set of eight album leaves painted by the Qianlong-period scholar-official Zhang Ruocheng (1721-1770). In particular, one can find parallels between the boxes and the album leaf ‘Ji Men fei yue’ (Windswept rain at the Ji Gate) (fig. 2), as seen in the gently rolling mountains and small huts nestled among straight towering trees. This album is now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated on the museum website.