YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH/14TH CENTURY

Details

**A RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INLAID CARVED LACQUER CUP STAND
YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH/14TH CENTURY
With shallow rounded sides, the interior inlaid with a mother-of-pearl flower head in a raised platform encircled by a narrow channel from which radiate cloud scrolls below seven pommel scrolls (jinhuan), with eight further jinhuan on the exterior, all deeply carved through the eleven alternating layers of black and red lacquer, the countersunk base covered in blackish-brown lacquer and painted in red lacquer with a yu (jade) character
6 in. (15.4 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box

Provenance

Jean-Pierre Dubosc Collection, Kamakura and Paris.

Exhibited

Chinese lacquer from the Jean-Pierre Dubosc Collection and Others, Eskenazi Ltd., London, December 1992, no. 11.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

This cup stand with its combination of carved scrolls, shallow shape, and especially its mother-of-pearl center appears to be very rare, as no other comparable example has been published. It is related to the more commonly seen Song dynasty cup stands with a cup-shaped holder rising from a dish raised on a spreading foot that are carved with 'pommel' scrolls similar to those on the present dish. See a black example and a red example illustrated in Karomono: Imported Lacquerwork--Chinese, Korean and Ryukyuan (Okinawa), Selections from the Tokugawa Art Museum, No. 2, Japan, 1997, p. 15, nos. 8 and 9.

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