A RARE CHINESE IMPERIAL CINNABAR LACQUER 'DRAGON' CABINET

QIANLONG 1736-95

The rectangular body with a pair of square doors above a pair of larger rectangular doors, each carved in relief with a scaly five-clawed dragon writhing amidst breaking waves, the lower panel carved with winged carp also above breaking waves. The top and sides with geometric diaper patterns, the borders with scrolls, the hinges, mounts and feet gilded and decorated with flowers, the interior with two small drawers and a removable platform all in black lacquer, 54.5cm x 34cm x 16cm.

Provenance: from a British private collection, purchased from Adrian Joseph, c.1984.

Cf. J Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, p.878, nos.2020 for an almost identical cabinet, believed to have been presented to George III by the Qianlong Emperor following Lord Macartney's Embassy of 1792-4.

The iconography of the carp and the dragon has a long history in China, and it is a reference to success in the Imperial examinations. In Chinese mythology, the few carp which succeeded in swimming upstream can turn into dragons, and thus become a symbol of literati aspirations and of reaching the highest level.