A VERY RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL THREE-TIERED SCHOLAR'S BOX
QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
Ingeniously composed as three stacked scrolls functioning as two tiers of containers, variously enameled with bats amidst clouds, lotus scrolls and a floral honeycomb design, bound together by a flower-patterned cloth and set atop a rectangular box shaped as a book enameled with a floral pattern to replicate brocade binding, the interiors gilt, the base enameled with Qianlong four-character mark.

Dimension: 8-1/4" H x 5-1/2" L

LOT NOTES
It is very rare to find this type of shaped stacked box in cloisonne enamel, although another example of nearly identical design, but without a Qianlong mark, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1500. Another example of slightly different form with two stacks of scrolls, dated to the Kangxi period, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 29 November 1993, lot 98.
Several examples in carved lacquer are also known. These include an example from the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the exhibition, Qing Legacies: The Sumptuous Art of Imperial Packaging, Macau Museum of Art, 2000, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 70, no. 2; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 926.