A cloisonné enamel 'dragon' box and cover Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period

of circular form and tubular section, the exterior decorated in cloisonné enamels with three characters fu, lu, shou, each character set between two writhing dragons, set among leafy lotus sprays, all against a blue-ground, the underside matchingly decorated, the hinges in gold imitating lotus petals 

A closely related box, in the Pierre Uldry collection, is illustrated in Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonne, Zurich, 1985, pl. 166; and another, from the Clague collection was included in the exhibition Chinese Cloisonne. The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 1980, cat.no. 31. Compare also a box, from the collection of Miss. A.C. Kemp, sold in our London rooms, 7^th May 1963, lot 70, also published in Sir Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonne Enamels, London, 1962, pl. 63B. Garner ibid., p. 85, notes that boxes of this form belong to a group of cloisonné enamel wares that are generally small intimate pieces of distinctive shapes and are remarkably consistent in the use of enamel colour range of dark greyish cobalt-blue, red, yellow, white and the semi-translucent brown set against a turquoise-blue with less green in it than normal Ming colour.