Circular lobed box, cloisonne enamels on copper, one of a pair

Circular lobed box, cloisonne enamels on copper with gilding. The outside decorated with floral ornament on dark blue enamel ground. The inside enamelled turquoise blue. Pair with 917-1873.

Purchased from the Tayler Collection, accessioned in 1873. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.
Part of a large group of Chinese and Indian objects purchased from Mr William Tayler. There is a long report on the collection by Matthew Digby Wyatt, the museum’s Art Referee, but he makes not mention of provenance. The register notes that this object comes 'From the Summer Palace, Pekin’, but there in no further information in the archive. The Summer Palace, or Yuanming Yuan, was the imperial summer retreat located north of Beijing, which was plundered and destroyed by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860.

916-1873