A rare qiangjin lacquer sutra box and cover China, Ming Dynasty, early 15th century

of rectangular form, the bright cinnabar lacquer finely incised and gilded in qiangjin technique on the front and back with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, ba jixiang, namely the umbrella, conch, canopy, flaming wheel, lotus, endless knot, double-fish and vase, all borne on large lotus blossoms on scrolling stems issuing from rockwork, the motif divided and repeated four on each short side, and on the upper surface of the conforming cover, its canted corners incised with classic scroll band and its sides with detached ruyi-form clouds, set with a pair of gilt bronze hinges at the back punched with lotus flowers, and a small square lockplate at the front secured by flowerhead studs, the interiors of the box and the cover lined with silk brocade, 17th / 18th century, woven with butterflies and peach flowers in muted tones of turquoise, dark blue, yellow, pink, white and pale green on a vermilion ground

Compare a rare sutra box and cover decorated with striding five-clawed dragons in qiangjin (lit. cut-gold) technique, exhibited A & J Speelman, Ltd., Buddhist Works of Art, London, 1998, no.24. Another box of identical form and decoration is illustrated, Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1980, fig.26. All are clearly products of the Imperial workshops, and the dragons are extremely closely related to those on two boxes of related forms illustrated by Sir John Addis, Chinese Ceramics from Datable Tombs, London, 1978, figs.32d and 32e-f, and again in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji. Ming, vol.5, Beijing, pls.1&2. The minor borders on the present box relate closely to these boxes, and as they were excavated from the tomb of the Prince of Lu, datable to 1389, they clearly indicate the outstanding level of technical proficiency achieved at this early date.

The Eight Buddhist Emblems appear to be motifs typically found on sutra covers from this period, and are much more rarely found on boxes. Compare the sets of qiangjin lacquer sutra covers made for the famous series of sutras commissioned in 1410 by the Yongle emperor to atone for his usurpation of the Imperial throne and his promotion of Tibetan monasteries, one in the Florence & Herbert Ivring Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by Watt & Ford, East Asian Lacquer. The Florence & Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1992, cat.no.49, which incorporate related motifs of the Eight Buddhist Emblems.