拍品专文
The present two carved red, green and yellow lacquer stationery chests were formerly in the collection of H.R.H Princess Alice, the Duchess of Gloucester, sister-in-law of King George VI. Prior to being in the collection of the English Royal family it is likely that they would have been wedding gifts for an important female member of the Chinese Imperial Court, probably the Empress, as the phoenix design depicted on all sides of one box is symbolic of the Empress and the feminine principle, Yin.
Compare with a related unmarked Jiajing period stationery chest decorated with a pair of confronted dragons in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 178, no. 136 (fig. 1). A similar box decorated with dragons in the Kaisendo Museum was included in the exhibition, Carved Lacquer, Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata, 1974, fig. 67.
Compare with a related unmarked Jiajing period stationery chest decorated with a pair of confronted dragons in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 178, no. 136 (fig. 1). A similar box decorated with dragons in the Kaisendo Museum was included in the exhibition, Carved Lacquer, Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata, 1974, fig. 67.