MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY

A similar red lacquer box carved with leafy peonies on an ochre ground, in the Tokugawa Art Museum, is illustrated in Karamono, Imported Lacquerwork – Chinese, Korean and Ryukyuan (Okinawa), Nagoya, Japan, 1997, no. 53, where it is dated Ming dynasty, 15th century. Like the current box, and the following box, lot 962,  carved with chilong, the Tokugawa box bears the signature of Zhang Cheng, a master lacquer artist from the district of Xitang in Jiaxing that worked during the late Yuan period. Zhang Cheng was first mentioned together with contemporary lacquer artist, Yang Mao, in the connoisseur's handbook Gegu Yaolun, published in 1388, and translated by Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseurship, London, 1971.