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Lot Essay
The tray is exquisitely carved on the interior medallion with two Daoist immortals, Lu Dongbin and Zhong Liquan, seated on rocks on a diaper ground and below an aged pine tree, with the ‘three friends of winter’, either pine, prunus or bamboo enclosed within the ten bracket-lobed panels in the cavetto, repeated on the exterior. The conforming bracket form foot is carved with a keyfret band. The base covered in brown lacquer.
This exquisite tray is an exceptional early Ming lacquer ware. This composition is extremely rare amongst the group of large foliate trays of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Daoist immortals are depicted as relatively large and are surrounded by an unusually dense ground of finely carved pine branches, bamboo, and rocks, mountains, and clouds. A specific subject is depicted, one where knowledge is imparted between the immortals Lu Dongbin and Zhong Liquan within a forest setting. Most other large trays, often bearing either Yongle or Xuande marks, have a formulaic composition with much smaller figures travelling within landscapes or placed within palatial settings such as the lacquer tray depicting a gathering within a terraced landscape, incised with a Yongle mark from the Qing court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, 2006, Hong Kong, pl.34 (fig.1).
A carved cinnabar lacquer tiered box in the Royal Scottish Museum Collection, dated to Hongwu or Yongle period, depicting the same subject on the cover, is illustrated by Hu Shih-chang, Chinese Lacquer, 1998, Edinburgh, no. 14 (fig.2). Compare also, to a smaller (34.3 cm.), eight lobed cinnabar lacquer tray from the Hongwu period, depicting the Daoist immortal, Xiwangmu, sold at Important Chinese Lacquer from the Lee Family Collection, Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2117 (fig.3).
It is interesting to note that unlike most of the ‘scholars in landscape’ trays from early Ming period which have specific diaper patterns to indicate and differentiate spatial distance and architectural elements in the composition, the present tray and the ‘Xiwangmu’ tray from the Lee family Collection, are considered earlier in date as their decorative compositions are exceptionally dense, particularly in the design of the trees and shrubs which leave virtually no room for the carver to indicate the sky, revealing only the even ocher coloured base layer.
This exquisite tray is an exceptional early Ming lacquer ware. This composition is extremely rare amongst the group of large foliate trays of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Daoist immortals are depicted as relatively large and are surrounded by an unusually dense ground of finely carved pine branches, bamboo, and rocks, mountains, and clouds. A specific subject is depicted, one where knowledge is imparted between the immortals Lu Dongbin and Zhong Liquan within a forest setting. Most other large trays, often bearing either Yongle or Xuande marks, have a formulaic composition with much smaller figures travelling within landscapes or placed within palatial settings such as the lacquer tray depicting a gathering within a terraced landscape, incised with a Yongle mark from the Qing court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, 2006, Hong Kong, pl.34 (fig.1).
A carved cinnabar lacquer tiered box in the Royal Scottish Museum Collection, dated to Hongwu or Yongle period, depicting the same subject on the cover, is illustrated by Hu Shih-chang, Chinese Lacquer, 1998, Edinburgh, no. 14 (fig.2). Compare also, to a smaller (34.3 cm.), eight lobed cinnabar lacquer tray from the Hongwu period, depicting the Daoist immortal, Xiwangmu, sold at Important Chinese Lacquer from the Lee Family Collection, Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2117 (fig.3).
It is interesting to note that unlike most of the ‘scholars in landscape’ trays from early Ming period which have specific diaper patterns to indicate and differentiate spatial distance and architectural elements in the composition, the present tray and the ‘Xiwangmu’ tray from the Lee family Collection, are considered earlier in date as their decorative compositions are exceptionally dense, particularly in the design of the trees and shrubs which leave virtually no room for the carver to indicate the sky, revealing only the even ocher coloured base layer.