MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY

Although no tray of this rare design appears to have been published, an earlier Xuande-marked carved cinnabar square tray depicting the Five Sages shares a similar theme of figures inside a pavilion against different grounds of air, water and land-diaper. The sides of that example are also surrounded with dense floral designs. See Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Museum, p. 78, pl. 55. Two further carved cinnabar examples of similar rectangular form and figural theme, dating to mid-Ming period, depicting a figure gathering herb and fishermen boating in river, are illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of The Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pls. 140-141.