Michael Hughes
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PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH LADY
Lot 44
A Rare black anthracite circular 'European armorial' Box and Cover Jiaqing
15 March 2021, 10:00 EDT
New YorkUS$2,000 - US$4,000
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A Rare black anthracite circular 'European armorial' Box and Cover
Jiaqing
The lightly domed cover, carved in deep relief with a dense design of farmers at chores, and other figures boating, sitting in pavilions, riding a horse, and dangling their feet in water, all set amidst pine, maple, willow and bamboo, bordered by a wreath-like band of peony and prunus which continues on the waisted sides, the box sides with buildings and pine and the base similarly carved to the cover, though in a less-dense fashion, with agricultural, fishing and leisure scenes centered by the coat-of arms and motto 'Pax et Copia' (Peace and Plenty).
5 1/2in (14 cm) diameter
The lightly domed cover, carved in deep relief with a dense design of farmers at chores, and other figures boating, sitting in pavilions, riding a horse, and dangling their feet in water, all set amidst pine, maple, willow and bamboo, bordered by a wreath-like band of peony and prunus which continues on the waisted sides, the box sides with buildings and pine and the base similarly carved to the cover, though in a less-dense fashion, with agricultural, fishing and leisure scenes centered by the coat-of arms and motto 'Pax et Copia' (Peace and Plenty).
5 1/2in (14 cm) diameter
Footnotes
清嘉慶 炭雕人物樓閣及歐洲紋章盒蓋
PROVENANCE
Spink & Son, Ltd., London
來源
Spink & Son, Ltd., 倫敦
David Sanctuary Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, London, 1974, p. 710, W3, illustrates a plate with the same motto 'Pax et Copia' belonging to the Samler family but with a different coat of arms (impaling Shaw) but sharing some of the heraldic symbols like the 'three quatrefoils'.
A large number of similar boxes and covers depicting the daily lives of the Chinese population, presumably in the south, and it appears specifically made for the export trade, are published, but most appear to have been made from tortoiseshell. The use of anthracite, (coal or fossilized wood), is an unusual feature of this particular box. The addition of motto's and coat's-of-arms on so many of these boxes clearly points to a Western commission, as does their appearance in so many Western collections.
For two tortoiseshell examples, presumably from the same network of workshops, see Sotheby's, New York, Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, 14 September 2019, lot 1297; and Gerard Hawthorn Ltd., Oriental Works of Art, Summer 2005, no. 70.
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