A FINELY CARVED MING CINNABAR LACQUER RECTANGULAR TRAY

The depiction of Buddhistic lions and their cubs were popular motifs on ceramics as early as the Xuande period. However, on lacquerware these motifs probably did not appear until slightly later in the 15th century. Compare with a circular box depicting a pair of Buddhist lions and their cub playing with a beribboned brocade ball in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 110, no. 80 (fig. 1). Despite the Xuande mark on the Palace Museum box, the mark is regarded as spurious and the box is dated to the mid-Ming period.

A point of note is the use in the combination of Buddhistic lions and the zabao, 'miscellaneous treasures' motifs which are similar to those painted on blue and white ceramics of the Chenghua period. Compare with a large blue and white dish decorated with a pair of Buddhistic lions, each grasping a long ribbon in their mouths that is attached to a brocade ball at the centre, excavated from the Chenghua stratum and dated to the mid-Chenghua period, illustrated in A Legacy of Chenghua, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 141, B26.

Exhibited

The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 1990, Dragon and Phoenix, Chinese Lacquer Ware, The Lee Family collection, Catalogue, 50
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990/91
The Shoto Museum of Art, Shibuya, Japan, 1991, Chinese Lacquerware, Catalogue, no. 58
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Catalogue, no. 53