A PAIR OF CINNABAR LACQUER ‘SCHOLAR’ BOXES AND COVERS QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

each of square form, the slightly domed covers deftly carved with scholars among landscapes, one box with the Seven Sages of Bamboo Grove engaged in literati pursuits including chess and painting appreciation, the other with Wang Xizhi seated at Lanting ('Orchid Pavilion') by the banks of a river with scholars engaging in a game of floating cups, all surrounded by archaistic kui dragon scrolls reserved on a leiwen ground and divided by twist-rope borders, the decoration repeated at the sides, encircled by a key-fret band at the foot, the interior and the base lacquered black

Parke Bernet, New York, 7th March 1946.
Collection of F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr., California.

Oriental Lacquer: An exhibition organised by guest curator, F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, 1976, p. 9, cat. no. 6.

The quality and precision of the carving on this pair of boxes and covers is outstanding, representing the high quality achieved at the Palace workshops in the Qianlong era. For comparable examples, see a smaller Qianlong reign-marked lacquer box and cover with similar rendition of figures in a landscape scene from the Qing court collection, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors. Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, 2007 no.110.