A RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID LACQUER OCTAGONAL TRAY

Details

A RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID LACQUER OCTAGONAL TRAY
EARLY MING DYNASTY, 15TH EARLY 16TH CENTURY

The raised central octagonal medallion finely decorated with three scholars on horseback travelling towards city gates to join a larger group of scholars appreciating paintings and antiques within elaborate pavilions and in the garden beneath fruiting peach trees, the rounded cavetto with eight shaped panels enclosing seasonal flower sprigs reserved on a diaper ground, the slightly flared lipped rim with a continuous composite flower meander, the back undecorated and lacquered in black, raised on a conforming tall splayed foot (minor repairs)
12 in. (31 cm.) wide, Japanese wood box

Provenance

A Japanese private collector

Lot Essay

This tray can best be compared to a circular tray from the Hakutsuru Art Museum, Kobe, dated Yuan dynasty, depicting scholars on horseback arriving at a literary gathering, with a closely related floral scroll in the well, included in the Nezu Insititute of Fine Arts exhibtion catalogue The Color and Forms of Song and Yuan China, Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics and Metalwares, 2004, no. 124.

A rectangular box decorated with a near identical pattern, dated to the 16th century, was included in The British Museum 1973 exhibition, Chinese And Associated Lacquer From the Garner Collection, London, 1973, pl. 51, fig. 124.

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