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Lot Essay
The inscription on this box refers to Yang Mao, who is mentioned in the Gegu yao lun as being a pupil of Yang Hui of Xitang at the end of the Yuan dynasty and famous for his carved red lacquer ware, see Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseurship, The Ko Ku Yao Lun: The Essential Criteria of Antiquities, London 1971, p. 146.
A slightly smaller box with similar carved design also employing three lacquer colours, red, yellow and black, in the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 381. A very slightly larger red tixi lacquer circular box, which has a scrolling design almost identical to the current box is illustrated by J. P. Fang, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, 1997, p. 145, fig. 147. The illustrated box has an inscription indicating that it was made by another great Yuan lacquer artist, Zhang Cheng. A slightly smaller Qing dynasty box copying these was formerly in the collection of Sir Harry Garner, illustrated in Chinese and Associated Lacquer from the Garner Collection, British Museum, London, 1973, no. 22, pl. 9a.
A slightly smaller box with similar carved design also employing three lacquer colours, red, yellow and black, in the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 381. A very slightly larger red tixi lacquer circular box, which has a scrolling design almost identical to the current box is illustrated by J. P. Fang, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, 1997, p. 145, fig. 147. The illustrated box has an inscription indicating that it was made by another great Yuan lacquer artist, Zhang Cheng. A slightly smaller Qing dynasty box copying these was formerly in the collection of Sir Harry Garner, illustrated in Chinese and Associated Lacquer from the Garner Collection, British Museum, London, 1973, no. 22, pl. 9a.