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Lot Essay
Our present lacquer box seems to be the unique example embellished with a "Spring Water" jade plaque. The tixi technique can be seen very occasionally on lacquers as early as the Han to Three Kingdoms period (206 BC-AD 280) and the Shanghai Museum has in its collection a small tixi lacquer box of this date. However, these sophisticated lacquers with carved scrolling designs came to prominence amongst the luxury items treasured by the elite in the Song dynasty. See a small black lacquered flower shaped box and cover (D. 12.4 cm), dated Southern Song period, illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, vol. 4 – Three Kingdom-Yuan, Fujian, 1993, p.55, no. 134.
The similar style of carving can also be seen on a slightly smaller tixi black lacquer box of octagonal shape (D.18.3 cm), dated late 14th- early 15th century, in the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection and gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of New York (2015.500.1.26a, b), illustrated by James C. Watt and Barbara B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pl. 58, no. 13 (fig.1). A larger Ming dynasty tixi octagonal box and cover of similar pattern to the current example has been published by Hu Shih-chang in Chinese Lacquer, National Museums of Scotland Publishing, Edinburgh, 1998, p. 27, no. 6. A further example of a Ming dynasty tiered tixi box and cover was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Toyo no Shikkogei: Tokubetsu Ten Oriental Lacquer Arts: Special Exhibition, Tokyo, 1977, no. 525. See another early Ming octagonal box and cover (D. 21 cm) bearing a later inscription inside the cover and box, illustrated in Many Splendors: Yuan, Ming and Qing Lacquerware from the Chao Collection, Beijing, 2010, no. 18.
The similar style of carving can also be seen on a slightly smaller tixi black lacquer box of octagonal shape (D.18.3 cm), dated late 14th- early 15th century, in the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection and gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of New York (2015.500.1.26a, b), illustrated by James C. Watt and Barbara B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pl. 58, no. 13 (fig.1). A larger Ming dynasty tixi octagonal box and cover of similar pattern to the current example has been published by Hu Shih-chang in Chinese Lacquer, National Museums of Scotland Publishing, Edinburgh, 1998, p. 27, no. 6. A further example of a Ming dynasty tiered tixi box and cover was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Toyo no Shikkogei: Tokubetsu Ten Oriental Lacquer Arts: Special Exhibition, Tokyo, 1977, no. 525. See another early Ming octagonal box and cover (D. 21 cm) bearing a later inscription inside the cover and box, illustrated in Many Splendors: Yuan, Ming and Qing Lacquerware from the Chao Collection, Beijing, 2010, no. 18.