A Canton enamel three-tiered cosmetics box and coverQianlong mark
Of rectangular form with indented corners, the top of the cover slightly raised and painted with a vignette of two birds, a rose bush and asters growing behind a garden rock, enclosed within a key fret border, the interior of the cover painted with a mythical beast, bats, and auspicious fruits and flowers, the long sides painted with reserves enclosing floral sprigs and the short sides with archaistic scrolling dragons, all against a black ground of blossoms and scrolling foliage, the decoration on the sides of the cover repeated with slight variation on the sides of the two tiers, the mouth and foot of the middle tier set with a raised lip to fit into the cover and the lower tier, the underside of the lower tier painted with a large peach and bat, the four-character painted over the peach, the exposed metal edges throughout finished in gilt.
2in (5cm) long (4).注脚Provenance:
American Private Collection

A similar three-tiered box and cover with Qianlong four-character mark was sold in our San Francisco rooms, 19 December 2017, lot 6359. The painted decoration on the top of the present example is similar to that painted on a late Yongzheng/early Qianlong period tray in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and illustrated by Tatiana Arapova, Chinese Painted Enamels: A Collection of the State Hermitage Museum (Moscow, 1988), cat.no. 109 (165a).