Chest; China, 20th century

Chest; China, 20th century
Glazed porcelain; brass
Bears a stamp on the base
Measurements: 22 x 24 x 14 cm.

A blue-and-white glazed porcelain box with gilded brass trim, made in China, likely in Hong Kong around the 1990s, following traditional blue-and-white porcelain designs. The piece is entirely decorated with floral motifs of lotus flowers and intertwined tendrils painted in cobalt blue under glaze, on a crackled white background. The brass mountings, of a Western style and reminiscent of the Napoleon III aesthetic, include a rocaille-style cut-out handle on the lid, an openwork border running along the joint between the body and the lid, and four claw-shaped feet resting on a bed of fallen leaves, as well as a pair of applied masks at the front corners.

The lotus flower, the central motif of the decoration, is one of the most recurring and symbolically significant motifs in Chinese art: associated with Buddhism, it represents purity and spiritual elevation, as it emerges clean and immaculate from the murky waters of the mud. Its depiction, together with tendrils and intertwined stems forming continuous scrollwork, gives rise to what is known as the “coiled lotus” or “interlaced flower” motif, widely used since the Ming Dynasty in the decoration of blue-and-white porcelain, and which also symbolizes continuity and abundance due to the uninterrupted nature of the motif.