Chinese Porcelain Stacking Box. Qing Period, 19th Century.

Exceptional Chinese porcelain piece, ancient and smartly hand-carved. It is a delicate small box made up of four small circular pieces of the same shape and size, which go one on top of the others and form a cylinder. This lovely box dates from the Quin period of the 19th century, very probably during Daoguang reign, from the year between 1820 and 1850. Its ancient age is only one of its great features, together with the beauty of the engraved and hand-painted motives with great skill, precision and charm. The piece is in very good condition and all its parts are complete, intact except one of the pieces, with some hits due to its old age. The box is made up of four circular parts of the same shape and dimensions. These pieces go stacked and make up an elegant tower-shaped structure, highly elegant and stylized. They all bear the furnace mark, an ochre tone with darkens the upper edge of each piece and is due to the heat needed to fire the porcelain. One of the pieces bears a red wax seal which still shows part of an inscription, in which we can read the word PERMISSION. If we turn another piece upside down, we can see the remains of another wax seal. The outside of the small circular trays is decorated with vegetal motives, more precisely with peaches hanging from the tree. Peaches are a Chinese symbol of longevity, and the Chinese ideogram that appears on all the pieces is also related with this concept. The pieces are hand-painted in delicate green, red and grey colors. The upper piece, which is also the cover, goes upside down showing a traditional Chinese scene. The figures are full of grace and movement, something typical of these kinds of scenes, and the suits colors stand out because of their strength and intensity. This lovely box is a really exceptional antique, as delicate and elegant as valuable, worthy of the best collection. Measurements: 100 mm width x 125 mm height.