J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
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ELEGANTLY MADE: Art for the Chinese Literati
March 13-27, 2020
10.
A LAC BURGAUTÉ CIRCULAR BOX AND COVER
17th – 18th Century
of shallow form, inlaid with multicolored thin segments of abalone shell, gold foil and silver foil, decorated on the cover with a scene of a scholar at leisure in his garden terrace, gazing at a flourishing lotus pond, reclining on a mat with his elbow resting on a book, attended by a servant with a fan and a boy boiling water for tea, inscribed using inlaid shell in running script with a quotation from a poem by Zhou Dunyi, followed by a square seal inlaid in shell incised with the name 扶九 Fujiu, all encircled by a narrow band of running fretwork inlaid in gold, the edge of the cover inlaid in shell with a dentil border above a band of floral diaper on the straight sides, repeated on the sides of the box, and with a different diaper band on the underside of the box, the interior of the cover inlaid with a tied chrysanthemum bouquet and the interior of the box inlaid with a group of articles for the scholar’s desk, the underside of the box with an inlaid square cartouche enclosing four characters in seal script: 方扶九作 (Made by Fang Fujiu).
Diameter 3 15⁄16 inches (10 cm)
Provenance
Grace Wu Bruce, Hong Kong
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, January 1987
Shuisongshi Shanfang Collection
The scene of a scholar beside a lotus pond in a garden setting was a popular subject in paintings and in decoration of ceramics, lacquer and other works of art throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. The imagery embodies the cultivated lifestyle of the literati. The verses quoted on this box are taken from a famous poem on the same theme by Zhou Dunyi (周敦頤, 1017-1093) entitled 愛蓮說 (Ai lian shuo, On the Love of Lotus). Zhou uses lotus, chrysanthemum and peony flowers to describe different types of men and presents the lotus as the “gentleman among flowers,” exemplary of the character of the ideal scholar-gentleman. The verses may be read as: 中通外直 不蔓不枝, which may be translated as: “hollow at the center and straight outside; no vines and no branches” (open-minded and upright; not overreaching and not diverging).
Compare the lac burgauté circular box and cover of similar shallow form decorated with figures in a landscape on the cover, with an inlaid shell cartouche on the base with two inlaid characters: yun zhong, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Qian wen wan hua: Zhongguo lidai qiqi yishu (In a Myriad of Forms: the Ancient Chinese Lacquers), Shanghai, 2018, pp. 196-197, no. 131, described as early Qing dynasty, 17th – 18th century.
十七–十八世紀 黑漆螺鈿「愛蓮說」圓盒 徑 10 厘米
「中通外直不蔓不枝」題 「扶九」印
「方扶九作」款
來源 香港嘉木堂
倫敦 Sydney L. Moss Ltd.， 1987 年 1 月
水松石山房藏
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