拍品专文
The dish is finely carved to depict two Buddhist lions divided by a ribboned brocade ball, all amidst lingzhi scrolls reserved on a cash-coins ground, repeated on the raised border. The black-lacquered base lightly incised with the maker’s mark, Zhou Ming Zao, ‘made by Zhou Ming’.
Compare the dish also incised Zhou Ming Zao, illustrated by Lee Yu-Kuan in Oriental Lacquer Art, p.142, fig. 73, together with an illustration of the mark. Compare also an octofoil dish carved with birds and a circular box, cover and stand each with the same inscription, exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, catalogue, p.46, no.54 and p.87, no.121.
The presence of Buddhist lions on 14th century lacquer pieces is rare. Compare with a Yongle box with similar design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, no.11.
For examples of trays and dishes of this period with the same distinctive diaper rim, one illustrated by Regina Krahl and Brian Morgan, from Innovation to Conformity, p.34, pl.8 and p.38, pl.10; one by Yasuhiro Nishioka, Chinese Lacquerware, p.43, col.pl.40; Derek Clifford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, p.50, pl.32 and p.64, pl.38; and Lee Yu-kwan, Chinese Lacquer, an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Museum, 1964, Catalogue, no. SYL5.
Compare the dish also incised Zhou Ming Zao, illustrated by Lee Yu-Kuan in Oriental Lacquer Art, p.142, fig. 73, together with an illustration of the mark. Compare also an octofoil dish carved with birds and a circular box, cover and stand each with the same inscription, exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, catalogue, p.46, no.54 and p.87, no.121.
The presence of Buddhist lions on 14th century lacquer pieces is rare. Compare with a Yongle box with similar design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, no.11.
For examples of trays and dishes of this period with the same distinctive diaper rim, one illustrated by Regina Krahl and Brian Morgan, from Innovation to Conformity, p.34, pl.8 and p.38, pl.10; one by Yasuhiro Nishioka, Chinese Lacquerware, p.43, col.pl.40; Derek Clifford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, p.50, pl.32 and p.64, pl.38; and Lee Yu-kwan, Chinese Lacquer, an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Museum, 1964, Catalogue, no. SYL5.