A LARGE IMPERIAL POLYCHROME LACQUER 'CHUN' PEACH-SHAPED BOX AND COVER WITH NINE MATCHING BOXES AND COVERS QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

the cover crisply and deeply carved through layers of red, green, yellow and black lacquer with a conforming peach-shaped panel enclosing a large Chun ('spring') character centred with a roundel framing a seated Shoulao with a recumbent deer beneath a pine tree, and rising from a large quatrefoil jardinière carved to the exterior with a band of lotus scrolls above upright leaves and radiating alternating red, green and yellow waves fanned out behind hovering auspicious emblems, all flanked by two descending five-clawed dragons reaching for the central roundel, amid scrolling ruyi clouds, all against a wan-diaper ground, the rounded sides of the box and cover carved with nine bats flying among dense foliage issuing nine large longevity peaches, the cover opening to reveal a black lacquer fitted tray gilt with further bats amid foliage, modelled to house nine small peach-shaped boxes, each in a different colour and decorated with one of the ‘Eight Daoist Immortals’ attributes in billowing ribbons and the ninth with a bat suspending a beribboned chime and a pair of peaches, the interiors and bases of all the boxes lacquered black

Collection of Mrs Loyce Mayfield, Mountain Crest, Birmingham, Alabama. 
Sotheby's Parke Bernet, Birmingham, 10th/11th June 1977, lot 70. 
Christie's New York, 21st/22nd March 2013, lot 1319.

The box and cover set is in overall very good condition for its age and type. The set has some occasional restored old cracks consistent with age, especially to the large box. Parts of the rims have been repainted to conceal some expected superficial flakes and crackles, including a few sections to the rim of the large cover. The left rim of the tray has been lightly repainted to stabilise some expected age cracks and flakes. The original gilt decoration, however, has been well preserved. There are also typical flakes to the extremities, some of which have been stabilised, retouched or restored. That includes small flakes to the delicately carved raised areas on the large cover and occasional tiny flakes to the carved cinnabar patterns of the small boxes and covers. The small ‘ruyi’ box has a belt of brocade pattern which has been slightly worn down.
"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."

Superbly crafted with a meticulous and carefully composed design, this box is extremely rare and only one other closely related example appears to be known, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2011, lot 3068. Layer upon layer of lacquer has been patiently applied to build up a thick surface which the craftsman has meticulously carved away, masterfully revealing the different colours to complement the overall design. Its sumptuousness is heighted upon opening the box, within which sit nine perfectly carved boxes nestled in an elegantly gilt-painted tray decorated with a design of scrolling lotuses and bats. This box represents the height of lacquer carving in the Qing dynasty while also embodying the wealth and prosperity of the Qianlong reign. 

The present box is popularly called the ‘Spring Longevity Treasure Box’ (Chunshou baohe) and was made as a birthday gift or as a food container for the Chinese New Year of Spring Festival celebration. Its design is steeped in auspicious symbolism and derives from a Jiajing (1522-66) original. The character chun (Spring) features centrally together with the Basket of Treasures, also known as the Treasure Bowl (Jubaopan). The basket is the Chinese equivalent of ‘The Horn of Plenty’ and is filled with coins, ingots, corals, pearls and other precious materials. Therese Tse Bartholomew, in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 224, notes that the Qianlong Emperor commissioned lacquer boxes with this design to convey the sentiment of longevity and the renewal of life.

All of the nine smaller boxes contained within are carved with the attributes of the Eight Immortals of Daoism and further reinforce the wish for longevity. The ninth box depicts a musical chime suspended in the mouth of a bat in flight, which represents the arrival of happiness. Qianlong employed the motif of nine peaches on famille-rose ‘peach vases’, a motif that was first employed during the Yongzheng reign but with eight peaches. Nine is homophonous with ‘long time’, thus again reinforcing the idea of longevity and timelessness.

The peach is among the most important auspicious symbols in Chinese culture and was one of the most favoured motifs of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. Linked with the Five Blessings, longevity, tranquility, virtue, wealth and natural death, peaches also became associated with Daoism and with the main concern of searching for immortality, hence its given name ‘Peaches of Immortality’. The Daoist deity Shoulao is often depicted holing a peach although on this box he is depicted in the roundel within the chun character.

A closely related box, probably from the same set but missing the internal boxes and tray, was sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 2866; another was sold at Christie’s London, 14th/17th June 1985, lot 417; and a third box was sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd/24th February 1982, lot 509. See also a slightly smaller box of this type sold in these rooms, 8th October 2010, lot 2642.

See also a related box, but with a variation of the cover design with a smaller chun character and larger dragons and a painted and incised interior fitted tray containing eight boxes, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi quanji [Complete series on Chinese lacquer], vol. 6, Fuzhou, 1993, pl. 219. Each smaller box is carved with one of the Eight Immortals, and as a set appears to illustrate Baxian qingshou (The Eight Immortals Celebrating the Birthday of Shoulo’). See also a peach-form lacquer box decorated with peaches carved in relief and painted with fruiting and flowering peach branches, bamboo, fungus and five bats, containing one peach-blossom form and nine peach-shape cups, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the exhibition China. The Three Emperors, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006, cat. no. 296.

Circular ‘Precious Spring Longevity’ boxes of the Qianlong period can be found in many important museums and private collections, including one in the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, published in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, op. cit., pl. 218; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Palace Lacquer Objects, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 67; and a third from the Baoyizhai collection sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3224. According to the Zaobanchu Archives of the Qing Imperial Household Department, on the 8th month of the 25th year of the Qianlong reign (corresponding to 1760), the Qianlong Emperor was presented with twelve carved cinnabar lacquer shouchun baohe boxes by the eunuch Hu Shijie, which were then approved and ordered to be inscribed by the emperor. For the Jiajing prototype, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 134.