MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY

Details

A CARVED RED LACQUER SQUARE TRAY
MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY
The interior finely carved with a butterfly hovering above a begonia plant and grasses rising from behind rocks, reserved on an 'air diaper' ground below camellia blossoms and leaves on the shallow flared sides, the exterior carved with stylized guri foliate scroll, raised on a shallow foot and with black-lacquered base
7 1/8 (18.2 cm.) square, Japanese wood box

Lot Essay

Compare one of a set of four trays in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by D. Clifford, Carved Chinese Lacquer, London, 1992, p. 82, pl. 50, where the author attributes the design to Song dynasty bird-and-flower paintings. The trays in the Palace Museum, dated to the Chenghua period, bear a similar asymmetric naturalistic arrangement with the spray growing from beyond the picture space.

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