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Lot Essay
While the form of this ewer points to a Ming-dynasty date, the style of carving draws its inspiration from earlier Song-dynasty lacquer, with flowers borne on undulating branches with densely arranged combed leaves, as seen on Lot 2903 the black lacquer scroll tray in this sale.
Carved lacquer ewers in double-gourd form from this period are extremely rare. Only very few related examples are known. An almost identical ewer retaining a cover is in the Muwen Tang Collection, illustrated in Simon Kwan, The Muwen Tang Collection Series: Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2010, no. 67. Another lacquer double-gourd ewer with cover dating to the same period, but rendered in tixi technique, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Proceedings of Conference on Ancient Chinese Lacquer, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012, p. 54, fig. 16. Compare also to a tixi lacquer facetted ewer formerly in the Robert de Strycker Collection, sold at Piasa Paris, 5 December 2007, lot 56.
Carved lacquer ewers in double-gourd form from this period are extremely rare. Only very few related examples are known. An almost identical ewer retaining a cover is in the Muwen Tang Collection, illustrated in Simon Kwan, The Muwen Tang Collection Series: Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2010, no. 67. Another lacquer double-gourd ewer with cover dating to the same period, but rendered in tixi technique, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Proceedings of Conference on Ancient Chinese Lacquer, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012, p. 54, fig. 16. Compare also to a tixi lacquer facetted ewer formerly in the Robert de Strycker Collection, sold at Piasa Paris, 5 December 2007, lot 56.