MING DYNASTY, 15TH/16TH CENTURY

Whilst few other comparable examples of bracket-lobed tixi lacquer trays of this rare form appear to be published, a bracket-lobed lozenge-shaped dish of identical form and similar design is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The dish was originally published in Gugong Qiqi Tezhan Mulu, A Special Exhibition of Lacquerwares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, no. 75 and dated to the Yuan dynasty. The same dish was later included in the exhibition Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors, Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 036 and dated to the 16th century. While an earlier dating can not be ruled out, comparisons with the carving on Jiajing-marked tixi lacquer ewer form the Lee Family Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2126 seem to corroborate a mid-Ming dating. Another lozenge-form tixi lacquer dish inscribed with a Zhang Cheng mark tentatively dated to the Xuande period is illustrated by Lee Yu-kuan, Oriental Lacquer Art, Tokyo, 1971, p. 178, no. 109. Compare also a 15th century dish of related but more compressed, square form, from the Lee Family Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong 3 December 2008, lot 2125. Another Yongle-marked cinnabar lacquer dish of similar bracket-lobed square form carved with figures in landscape, in the Beijing Palace Museum Collection, is illustrated in Carved Lacquerware, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2008, p. 46, no. 24.