A VERY RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER BOX AND COVER

Details

A VERY RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER BOX AND COVER
YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

The upper surface exquisitely carved with two figures beside a lake standing beneath a pine and wutong tree, all set within a rocky landscape under stylised ruyi head cloud scrolls, the vertical sides of the box and cover carved with a composite floral scroll borne on an undulating vine, the interiors and the base applied with dark brown lacquer, the right side of the base with an apocryphal Xuande six-character reign mark incised in a vertical line
6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) diam., Japanese wood box

Exhibited

The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 1990, Dragon and Phoenix, Chinese Lacquer Ware, The Lee Family Collection, Catalogue, no. 31
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990/91
The Shoto Museum of Art, Shibuya, Japan, 1991, Chinese Lacquerware, Catalogue, no. 37

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Carrie Li

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Lot Essay

Similarities in the treatment of the figures as well as the distinctive sky-diaper can be seen on a Yuan dish illustrated by Lee Yu-kuan, Oriental Lacquer Art, Tokyo and New York, 1972, p. 167, no. 101. The water pattern rendered on the present box has also been noted as more freely carved than the stylised waves of early Ming pieces, cf., op. cit., Cologne, 1990, p. 88.

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