SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)

Four red lacquer dishes of this size and pattern are known, the first is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by C. Shangraw, 'Chinese Lacquers in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco', Orientations, April 1986, p. 26. It has been mentioned that the surface of these dishes with its fine hairlike crackle, known as 'cow-hair cracks', was due to the thinness of the lacquer; and differs to Yuan period lacquers which have deep linear crackles, owing to their different construction and thicker applications of lacquer, ibid. The second floral-form dish is in the Tokyo National Museum, included in the exhibition, Oriental Lacquer Arts, Tokyo, 1977, no. 424. The third one was formerly in the Lee Family Collection and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2107. The fourth example from the Jean-Pierre Dubosc Collection was included in the Eskenazi exhibtion Chinese Lacquer from the Jean-Pierre Dubosc collection and others, London, 1992, Catalogue, no. 4 and front cover.

Compare also a smaller mallow-form black lacquer dish, formerly in the Lee Family Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2103.