A Chinese Hardwood Inlaid Box and Cover
A Chinese Hardwood Inlaid Box and Cover
of rectangular form with a domed cover and a slightly recessed base surrounded by a beaded foot rim, the top inlaid in hard stones, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, soapstone, stained bone, cinnabar lacquer, jet with a kid holding a vase with a ruyi sceptre and coral flower riding on an elephant, two kids standing beside with long stem weapons, a seal mark
good condition with minor cracks on the stone inlaid
eight: 7cm
Length*Width: 22.5cm*19.5cm
Compare a zitan circular form covered box with a complex inlay decoration of a single Mongol huntsman on horseback, from the collection of Mary and George Bloch, sold in these rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 90; two further boxes decorated in this technique illustrated in Selected Handicrafts from the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1974, pls. 51 and 87; and another published in The Exquisite Chinese Artefacts: Collection of the Ching Wan Society, Taipei, 1995, pl. 92. The inspiration for the decoration may have come from contemporary or slightly earlier paintings; see a late fifteenth century painting fragment included in the exhibition Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, cat. no. 162, depicting a subject of a huntsman on horseback holding a falcon.
