A RARE AND FINELY CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER OVAL DISH

Details

A RARE AND FINELY CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER OVAL DISH
YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

The interior carved with a landscape scene to depict a scholar seated in a pavilion observing his assistant fanning a stove, whilst another young attendant is approaching from the terraced garden, under a tall pine tree, further detailed with ornamental rocks, wutong and plantain, against a land diaper of eight-pointed rosettes and S-shaped curves representing water in the mid-distance, all within an ogival panel surrounded by a composite floral border, the mouth rim with two parallel grooves, the reverse side with a band of classic scrolls, the base lacquered black
9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm.) wide, Japanese wood box

Exhibited

The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 1990, Dragon and Phoenix, Chinese Lacquer Ware, The Lee Family Collection, Catalogue, no. 35
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990/91
The Shoto Museum of Art, Shibuya, Japan, 1991, Chinese Lacquerware, Catalogue, no. 41

Lot Essay

The style of the carving and composition are comparable to a circular dish dated to the Yuan period, bearing a later inscribed Xuande four-character mark, in the Beijing Palace Museum, 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. 14, no. 8 (fig. 1). The mouth rim of the Palace Museum dish is also rendered with two parallel grooves similar to the present oval dish. This exact scene, also within an ogival cartouche but with a floral diaper along the mouth rim, can be found on a dish dated to the 14th century Yuan period, illustrated in From Innovation to Conformity, Chinese Lacquer from the 13th to 16th centuries, Messrs Bluett & Sons, London, 1989, p. 35, no. 8.

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