A CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE CANTON ENAMEL 'QUAILS' SNUFF BOX.

Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period.

The cover delicately painted with a pair of quail birds among rocks beneath sprays of flowering peonies, sides with panels of peony blossoms on a diaper ground, the corners each set with a flower head roundel, the base and interior enamelled white, 3.5 x 9.5 x 6.5cm.

清乾隆 銅胎掐絲琺瑯繪鵪鶉花卉圖紋鼻煙盒

A pair of canton enamel boxes similarly decorated with a pair of quails on the covers, was gifted to Queen Mary in 1924 by the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Henry, Prince George, Princess Victoria, the King and Queen of Norway and the Duke of Connaught on the occasion of her 57th birthday (Ayres, Chinese Art in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen, cat nos 2134 and 2135, page 953.). Indeed the appropriateness of these boxes as a royal birthday gift is underlined by the hidden meanings within the painting where the combination of plants and rock is intended as a rebus of birthday wishes, and the pair of quails, shuang an, are a homophone for ‘double peace’. The royal pair of boxes were so highly prized that they were lent for exhibition at the International Exhibition of Chinese art at the Royal Academy, 1935-1936, the most important exhibition of Chinese art ever to have taken place in the West by that point. The present piece differs in shape, but finds a close example in shape and size to a piece in the Chinese Imperial collection also depicting a pair of birds on the cover, see Compendium Collection of the Palace Museum, Enamels, 2011, volume 5, cat no 101.

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