A rare Chinese bamboo-veneer (tiehuang) shaped square box an...

Hammer

£9,000

A rare Chinese bamboo-veneer (tiehuang) shaped square box and cover, Qianlong period (1736-95), the cover with re-entrant corners, carved in relief with 'chilong' amid scrolling tendrils inlaid with turquoise flower heads, within key work scrolling tendril borders, the sides with flowering branches, with golden to chestnut brown patina, silk brocade lining, caramel to chestnut brown patina, 20cm square, faults.



Provenance - Dr J W H Grice (1891-1976) collection, labelled no.8. Cf. a large turquoise-inlaid bamboo-veneer box and cover, Qianlong period (1736-1795) sold for 860,000 HKD by Sotheby's, Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 8 April 2011, Lot 3329, similarly set with turquoise flower heads.

CONDITION: The cover and base are slightly warped so no longer fit properly. A number of the inlaid turquoise flowers are missing. The cover is grubby with small losses, fine cracks and lifting to the veneer. The base has lost most of the inner flange and has fine cracks and lifting to the veneer.



Provenance

Dr John William Hawksley Grice (1891-1976) is regarded as a very important collector of carving in Britain; at the time he was collecting, he appears to have been unique among his peers for admiring Qing dynasty carvings. He wrote about 'Chinese Bamboo Carving' in Country Life in 1954, one of the first articles in English on the subject, and at the time he was collecting he appears to have been unique among his peers for admiring late carving. Dr Grice and his wife Kathleen moved to China in 1922 and he worked as a doctor in Tianjin for 30 years. He built his ivory and bamboo collection in China in the decades he spent there before leaving in 1952. He gave a sizeable proportion of his carved bamboo collection to London's Victoria and Albert Museum and donated other ivories and bamboo to the British Museum.