AN INLAID-LACQUER BOWL

CHOSON PERIOD (18TH-19TH CENTURY)

Details

AN INLAID-LACQUER BOWL
choson period (18th-19th century)
The deep, circular bowl set on three knob feet decorated in black lacquer over papier-mâché and inlays of mother-of-pearl, the flat cavetto inlaid with a roundel encircled by a fret border of a large, leaping carp and school of seven swimming carp, a butterfly, rock, and a blossoming cherry tree, one blossom of which floats above the head of the carp and numerous cherries interspersed between the swimming carp, also inlaid to the right of the school of fish with linked diamonds suggestive of linked coins or chimes, two of the Taoist 'eight precious emblems'; the sides of the bowl also inlaid with rectangular panels of auspicious plants and animals, including pairs of lovebirds, cranes, turtles, and deer, each with a different auspicious flower or tree, and with a panel of bamboo; rim mounted with metal
13in. (33cm.) diameter; 3 3/8in. (8.5cm.) high

Lot Essay

For two other bowls inlaid with fish and auspicious side panels see Kawada Tei and Takahashi Takahiro, Korai Richo no raden (Koryo and Choson mother-of-pearl) (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1986), pl. 55; Tokubetsu ten Korai Richo no raden (Special exhibition of Koryo and Choson mother-of-pearl) (Nara: Nara Prefectural Museum, 1986), nos. 47, 48.