An Exceptional 'Qiangjin' and 'Tianqi' Lacquer 'Wandai Shenghe' Double-Lozenge Box and Cover
Mark and Period of Qianlong
modelled in the form of two overlapping lozenges with six cylindrical posts at the corners, the cinnabar lacquer finely incised and gilt in the qiangjin technique and further picked out in tianqi polychrome enamels with five children at play in a fenced garden terrace set with jagged rocks issuing peonies and a lofty aged tree, to the left a boy ride a hobby horse, while another masquerades as the God of examination Kuixing, and the third hits a gong, to the right another boy pulls a cart while his acolyte holds a ruyi sceptre, the sloping sides similarly decorated with wan symbols among multi-coloured clouds repeated above tempestuous green waves around the foot, the straight sides picked out with a floral-diaper ground and descending bats on the cylindrical posts, the base lacquered red and inscribed in gilt Wandai shenghe ('Double Lozenge Box of Myriad Generations') below a six-character incised horizontal reign mark
width 31.7 cm., 12 1/2 in.