29 cm. （11 3/8 in.） long

The present lot bears a double-sided paper label attached to the base. One side is inscribed Shang Xiu Zhu shi qi which translates as ‘watching slender bamboo, seventeen’； the reverse is inscribed Bao Guang Shi Si which translates as ‘preserving light, fourteen’, which suggests that the current lot may have once been used at the Qing Court.

Shang Xiu Zhu was one of the studios located inside the Shu Qing Yuan or ‘Court of Purity’, a royal garden-palace complex situated next to the Forbidden City along Lake Taiye, which was built during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. According to the Guochao Gongshi Xubian or ‘A Supplemental History of the Qing Court’, the Kangxi emperor wrote the characters ‘Shang Xiu Zhu’ on a horizontal board, which in-turn became the name of the studio and the board was hung above the entrance of the studio. The numeral ‘seventeen’ probably indicates the location of the box in relation to the studio’s antiquity collection. Bao Guang or ‘Preserving Light’ possibly also refers to another studio inside the royal garden Shu Qing Yuan.

Double-sided labels with a studio names have rarely been found or studied by scholars, however this unusual practice might possibly suggest that this present lot might have been originally been placed at the ‘Preserving Light’ studio, numbered fourteen in relation to the studio’s antiquity collection； then was later moved and added to the antiquity collection of the ‘Shang Xiu Zhu’ studio.

See a related carved cinnabar lacquer rectangular box and cover decorated with lychees dated to the mid Ming dynasty in the collection of the Palace Museum, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang diaoqi, Beijing, 1985, pp.264-265, no.122. Compare also another related carved cinnabar lacquer rectangular box and cover decorated with birds and peonies （accession no.guzha3497fujian/jin153039guzha185 /yuan2026xiang） dated to Ming dynasty, 16th century, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Lin Mun-lee, Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors. Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, p.62, no.40.

Price estimate:
HKD: 140, 000 - 190, 000
USD: 17, 900 - 24, 400

Auction Result:
HKD: 177,000