A large and finely carved polychrome lacquer ‘chun’ box and cover

Description:

China, Qianlong period
D. 38 cm
The cover finely and deeply carved through red, green, black and yellow layers with a circular panel enclosing the character chun (spring) centred with a medallion enclosing Shoulao and rising above a large bowl overflowing with auspicious emblems, reserved against red, green, brown and yellow radiating waves, all flanked by a pair of five-clawed scaly dragons amidst ruyi-head cloud scrolls and reserved on a wan-diaper ground, the rounded sides of the cover and box deeply carved with the bajixiang and lobed cartouches centred with shou characters and flanked with bats on a dense ground of leafy lotus sprays, the interior and base lacquered black.
Old European private collection, assembled before 1990
Finely crafted with a carefully composed auspicious design, the present vessel belongs to a group of boxes produced at the height of lacquer carving during the Qianlong period (r. 1736-1795). Layer upon layer of lacquer has been patiently applied to build up a thick surface through which the craftsman has meticulously carved a plethora of textures of the different elements of the complex design, from the delicate softness of the petals and clouds, the naturalistic full central figure of Shoulao and the sway of his clothes, and the fine array of diaper patterns covering the ground. The artisan's virtuosity is further displayed through the compositional complexity and the variety of depths and angles from which the design emerges with vibrancy - Compare a similar box and cover illustrated in Derek Clifford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, London 1992, pls 106a and 106b, was sold at Christie’s New York, 30th March 2005, lot 166; and another was sold at Christie’s London, 14th June 1982, lot 194. Partly chipped, traces of age