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Lot Essay
Compare a pair of similar covers, dated c. 1410, published by J.C.Y. Watt and B.B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 116-7, where the authors note that these lacquered covers provide the earliest examples of Ming-style qiangjin work. Developed during the Southern Song period, qiangjin is a technique where channels carved into a lacquer groove are then filled with gold leaf or powder. The covers demonstrate an evolution in this technique from a more sharply cut free-form incision with a straight-edged instrument to a U-shaped groove produced with a channelling tool resulting in evenly spaced incisions.
A further set is illustrated by R.D. Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, no. 48. A set from the Lee Family Collection was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Lacquer from the Lee Family Collection, Part II, 1 December 2009, lot 1821. An inscribed pair was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2260.
A further set is illustrated by R.D. Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, no. 48. A set from the Lee Family Collection was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Lacquer from the Lee Family Collection, Part II, 1 December 2009, lot 1821. An inscribed pair was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2260.