A RARE EARLY MING CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER BOX AND COVER

XUANDE SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1426 - 1435)

Details

A RARE EARLY MING CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER BOX AND COVER
xuande six-character mark and of the period (1426 - 1435)
The top of the cover carved and incised through layers of red lacquer to a yellow ground with budding and blossoming peonies among dense leafy stems, the side of the box and cover similarly carved, the recessed base and interior lacquered black, the incised and gilt reign mark in a vertical line at the inner left side of the footrim, age cracks
4 in. (12 cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

A similar box and cover was sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 27 April 1997, lot 23. Compare also a smaller box inscribed with a Xuande four-character mark from the Carle Kempe Collection included in the exhibition, Chinesiche Lackarbeiten, Linden Museum, Stuttgart, 1988, Catalogue, no. 36, together with a similar Yongle-marked example. A similar but unmarked version from the Percival David Collection was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, 'The Arts of the Ming Dynasty', Catalogue, no. 230. Sir H Garner, Chinese Lacquer, fig. 32, illustrates a comparable 15th Century box carved with camellia from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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