19. A white and grey jade lychee incense box and cover

The box is of well fashioned low cylindrical form with a flat-topped cover fitting over a base of similar form but with a flange to secure the cover and a wide very low footrim. The cover is carved following two lines of darker inclusion with a design of three lychees borne on leafy stems. The base is similarly carved with lychees. The stone is of grey-white colour with some darker flaws and suffusions.

Provenance :
Maria Kiang Chinese Art
Priestley & Ferraro, ‘Sinews of Stone: Jade Carvings in the Ming Dynasty’, November 2021, no.9

For a very similar box in the collection of the V&A Museum, London, dated to the sixteenth century, see
Chinese Jades , no. 66, p. 62, where the authors discuss,
p. 63, the possibility that lychee decoration evolved from an earlier style featuring the yuxian flower, associated with a type of belt plaque conferred on Academician officials. In the present case, the carver seems to have taken inspiration from a type of Ming lacquer box characteristically carved with lychees. For another, a little smaller, see Chinese Jade From the Neolithic to the Qing , no. 29:10, p. 397.

灰白玉荔枝紋香盒

Dimensions: Diameter: 6 cm, 2 ⅜ inches

Date: Ming dynasty (1368-1644)