A RARE MING POLYCHROME LACQUER RECTANGULAR TRAY

Details

A RARE MING POLYCHROME LACQUER RECTANGULAR TRAY
WANLI PERIOD (1573-1620)

The interior with central ogival panel deeply carved with two birds amidst sprays of hibiscus in a rocky garden setting against a yellow ground of air and land-diaper, all surrounded by a brocade ground of twelve-pointed diaper rosettes, the curved sides carved through to the plain green ground with six five-clawed dragons chasing a flaming pearl and further diaper pattern cartouches at the corners, the exterior of the dish with a dense band of peony scroll above a key-fret band around the foot, the base with black lacquer and signs of an effaced reign mark near the upper edge
10 1/8 in. (25.6 cm.) long, box

Provenance

Edward T. Chow
Previously sold at Christie's London, 14 December 1983, lot 33.

Exhibited

The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 1990, Dragon and Phoenix, Chinese Lacquer Ware, The Lee Family Collection, Catalogue, no. 65
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990/91
The Shoto Museum of Art, Shibuya, Japan, 1991, Chinese Lacquerware, Catalogue, no. 67

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Carrie Li

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Lot Essay

The only other published example of this rare design is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 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. 216, no. 171 (fig.1). The original Wanli mark that has been effaced on the present example remains on the Palace Museum tray.

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