WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

140 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
112
A fine carved red lacquer box and cover
18th century
Diameter: 4P in, 12.3 cm
of circular section with a gently domed top and base. The box and cover are carved overall
with a total of five two-horned, five-clawed scaly dragons in pursuit of a flaming pearl amid
small scrolling waves that partly hide their bodies. The interior is lacquered black.
Formerly in a European private collection.
For related examples, see Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, pl. 311,
carved with nine dragons; Chinese Lacquer in the Palace Museum Collection, no. 54, in the
collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas
Collections, Lacquerware, no. 154, p. 157, in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of
San Francisco; Jakobsen and Sørensen, Empire of the Dragons: Chinese Art Treasures through
4000 years from Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark, no. 148, in the collection of the
Danish Museum of Decorative Art; Kopplin, Im Zeichen des Drachen: Von der Schönheit
chinesischer Lacker, Hommage an Fritz Löw-Beer, no. 85, pp. 174–5, in the collection of
the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart; and Strange, Chinese Lacquer, pl. XXII, in the collection
of the Victoria and Albert Museum.