A Carved Cinnabar Lacquer Box and Cover Mark and Period of Wanli, Dated in Accordance with 1595

of square form with slightly bombé sides and cusped corners, all supported on a square foot, deftly carved in varied levels of relief through layers of rich cinnabar lacquer to the ocher ground below, the cover with a barbed panel enclosing a five-clawed dragon (the fifth claw on the hind feet later removed) holding aloft a ribbon of ruyi-shaped clouds supporting a cash medallion flanked by sprays of millet and inscribed with the four characters tianxia taiping (peace under heaven), all above jagged rocks issuing branches of coral against a wavy sea and a sky of floral diapers, the four corners decorated with foliate mallows on a finely carved ochre-yellow diaper-ground, all surrounded around the sides by rectangular panels enclosing a continuous scroll of camellia, chrysanthemum, hibiscus and peony wreathed in their matching foliage and repeated in a reverse sequence around the box, all reserved on a dense floral ground, the foot picked out with key-fret, the interior and the base lacquered in black, the latter dated with an incised eight-character reign mark in gilt 

 

Collection of Frederick Mayer. 
Christie’s London, 24th / 25th June 1974, lot 120.

2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer. Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 69.
Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 48.

There are a few typical age cracks on the exterior, some at the corners that have been stabilized and relacquered, but overall the cover is in very good condition. The carving and diaper-yellow ground in particular, are remarkably well preserved. There are restorations to two corners of the rim with some relacquering on the lip and on the black lacquer on the interior. The box is also in good condition with a few small repaired chips with relacquering on the interior rim.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present finely carved box is closely related to one of the same decoration, and inscribed with the same cyclical date corresponding to 1595, in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, and included in the museum’s exhibition Toyo no urushi kogei, Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 545, together with a tray bearing the same dragon design as seen on the cover here, cat. no. 548. Compare also an unmarked red lacquer box of this shape, size and decoration sold in these rooms, 2^nd May 2005, lot 618; and another offered in these rooms, 30^thOctober 2000, lot 272. 

A rectangular polychrome lacquer box with a similar dragon motif on the cover, dated to 1589, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is mentioned by Peter Lam in Layered Beauty, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 126; another, also bearing a cyclical date that corresponds to 1595, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27^th May 2008, lot 1563; and a third rectangular box, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated to 1595, is published in Wang Shixiang, Ancient Chinese Lacquerware, Beijing, 1987, pl. 65.

Compare another rectangular box carved in a very similar manner, in the National Museum of Scotland, illustrated in Hu Shih-chang and Jane Wilkinson, Chinese Lacquer, Edinburgh, 1998, pl. 22, where on p. 17, it is mentioned that one claw of the dragon has been removed from each of the hind feet, as seen on the dragon on this box. The removal of a claw was a common practice, as explained by Harry Garner in Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, p. 92, where he writes that it was either done when the box was presented by the emperor to someone who had merited the honour, but did not have the appropriate ranking to own such an imperial item; or, more often, the claw was removed to disguise the fact than the box may have been stolen or removed illegally from the palace.