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Lot Essay
The present dish employs two decorative techniques known as qiangjin and tianqi. The first method, qiangjin, involves the inlaying of thin gold leaf into finely incised designs on a lacquer foundation. The earliest record of this style of decoration is found on the cover of a square box excavated in 1984 from the tomb of Zhu Ran who died in A.D. 249., illustrated in Anhui Institute of Archaeology, 1993, pp. 6-7, fig. 9. The qiangjin method was popular during the Yongle period, and can be seen on red-lacquered sutra covers where the surfaces have been ornately decorated in gilt, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993, p. 153, no. 79. The second technique used is tianqi, 'in-filled with lacquer', where lacquer of different colours have been applied within specified outlines thereby defining the detailed pattern. During the mid-Ming period, the combination of qiangjin and tianqi was employed for use on imperial lacquer, and the present dish is a good example of the high quality of the works that were produced.
During the latter half of the Wanli reign the use of eight-character cyclical marks, like the mark on the current dish, became popular. The earliest published Wanli cyclical date on a lacquer item is equivalent to AD 1585, but the majority of lacquer wares bearing cyclical marks date to the 1590s and most of these bear either the renchen or yiwei dates, corresponding to AD 1592 and 1595. Few examples with a wu xu date such as the present dish appear to have been published but a qiangjin and tianqi circular dragon box in the Palace Museum Beijing with a wu xu date is illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 226, no. 178. The box displays a very similar treatment of the floral border around the well of the present dish and of the diaper grounds.
During the latter half of the Wanli reign the use of eight-character cyclical marks, like the mark on the current dish, became popular. The earliest published Wanli cyclical date on a lacquer item is equivalent to AD 1585, but the majority of lacquer wares bearing cyclical marks date to the 1590s and most of these bear either the renchen or yiwei dates, corresponding to AD 1592 and 1595. Few examples with a wu xu date such as the present dish appear to have been published but a qiangjin and tianqi circular dragon box in the Palace Museum Beijing with a wu xu date is illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 226, no. 178. The box displays a very similar treatment of the floral border around the well of the present dish and of the diaper grounds.