A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL BOX AND COVER MING DYNASTY, LATE 15TH – 16TH CENTURY |

of circular section, the flat top of the cover brightly enamelled with a landscape centred by a tall three-peaked mountain emerging from scrolling clouds, on the right two figures standing at a tiered pavilion, sheltered amongst trees and shrubs growing between rocky cliffs beside a cresting sea, the sides of the box and cover similarly decorated with alternating red and yellow cartouches enclosing detached floral sprays, divided by further flowers reserved against a turquoise ground, the interior and base gilt

It is extremely rare to find a cloisonné enamel box and cover of this early period, and only a small number is recorded in any museum or private collection. The figural landscape scene adorning the cover, which is boldly rendered in blocks of red, turquoise and green, appears to have been influenced by woodblock prints of the Ming dynasty. Woodblock prints depicting scenes from popular novels and reproductions of paintings saw a marked expansion of the decorative repertoire of craftsmen. The classic motifs, such as bird, flower or animal designs, were produced alongside an increasing number of wares decorated with landscape scenes inhabited by figures and across a variety of media, particularly carved lacquer. In shape and design, this box appears to have been inspired by carved lacquer and porcelain circular boxes which were frequently adorned with such scenes and floral cartouches on the sides. However, it is unusual as the scene does not include the intricate carved diaper grounds of lacquer that were generally copied using wire cloisons. A smaller cloisonné enamel box and cover sold in our London rooms, 9th December 1986, lot 29, shares a similar unusual feature as the current example. The features of the figures are decorated entirely in gilt-bronze. A wrist rest decorated in a related style, with figures in a pavilion courtyard rendered in blocks of colour, attributed to the 17th century, formerly in the collection of Mrs Walter Sedgwick and now in the collection of Pierre Uldry, was included in the Rietberg Museum exhibition Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989, cat. no. 174, together with a table screen, depicting a figure in a landscape setting with similarly rendered clouds, cat. no. 170. A box of related form, attributed to the early Ming dynasty and illustrating a leafy peony bloom surrounded by a wider and more exaggerated sloping grapevine border, from the collection of David David-Weill and now in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, is published in Beatrice Quette, ed., Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 36, fig. 3.10.