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Lot Essay
The distinctive decorative design and style of carving is most commonly found on boxes and covers dating to this period. Compare the treatment of the figures, the rockwork, and the plantain with that found on a box and cover in the Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata prefecture, exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, Carved Lacquer and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 110, no. 151.
An unusual feature of this object is that the scene to the interior of the tray extends up the sides of the dish to the rim rather than being framed within a floral border. Another dish with a floral decorative border dating to the mid-Ming period in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 5, Ming, Fujian meishu chubanshe, 1995, pl. 75, and displays the same treatment, perhaps usually avoided in view of the difficulty of carving a continuous scene up the curved sides of the tray on an uneven plane.
The fact that the current tray is raised on four short feet is also a very rare feature as most published examples from the Ming dynasty are raised on a continuous raised foot extending around the base or do not have a foot.
An unusual feature of this object is that the scene to the interior of the tray extends up the sides of the dish to the rim rather than being framed within a floral border. Another dish with a floral decorative border dating to the mid-Ming period in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 5, Ming, Fujian meishu chubanshe, 1995, pl. 75, and displays the same treatment, perhaps usually avoided in view of the difficulty of carving a continuous scene up the curved sides of the tray on an uneven plane.
The fact that the current tray is raised on four short feet is also a very rare feature as most published examples from the Ming dynasty are raised on a continuous raised foot extending around the base or do not have a foot.