Lot Essay
A related dish finely decorated with a very similar layered floral design on two distinct planes was included in the exhibition, Carved Lacquer, Tokugawa Art Museum and Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, 1984, and illustrated in the catalogue, p. 57, no. 74. Compare also two related dishes: the first, carved with roses and bearing a Zhang Cheng maker's mark dated to the 14th century, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3 May 1994, lot 269 (16.5 cm. diam.); and another with begonia (26.8 cm. diam.) is in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 24, no. 15. Compare also a slightly later Yongle-marked circular dish, also finely carved using two distinct planes, in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated in op. cit., Hong Kong, 2006, p. 34, no. 21. A pair of dishes with a similar design from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, East Asian Lacquer, 1991, p. 74, Catalogue, no. 22. Two further dishes from the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Ekakuji were included in the 1984 Tokugawa Art Museum, Exhibition of Carved Lacquer, Japan, Catalogue, nos. 74 and 77.