Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art

14
A MINIATURE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER ‘FIGURES’
BOX AND COVER
Incised four-character Qianlong mark and period, 1736-1795
“ 乾 隆 年 制 ” 四 字 双 行 楷 书 款 剔 红 高 士 图 圆 盖 盒
Dimensions: 4 cm diameter
Provenance: - Purchased from Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, November
2010
- Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Ceramics and Works
of Art, 7 April 2015, lot 3641
- A private Asian collection
Published:
Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, ‘The Art of Scent’, Asian Art
in London 2010, no. 30
The circular box and cover are of a gently domed shape. Finely carved, when put
side by side, to depict a continuous scene of two scholars having a picnic under a
blossoming peach tree, both looking to their left at a young boy attendant, kneeling
beside rockwork, under trailing clouds and the sun in the sky above. The interior
lacquered black with a reign mark incised on the inside of the cover.