Lot Essay
The result of the Oxford Radiocarbon test, no. p6461, is consistent with the dating of this lot.
Compare a similar green-lacquered trunk from the Song Dynasty, illustrated by Lee Yu-kuan, Oriental Lacquer Art, Tokyo, 1972, p.110, no.47, decorated with phoenix in the same technique of incising designs into lacquer and filling it in with gold (qiangjin). Further similar trunks are in the Shoso-in imperial repository in Nara, and are discussed by Professor J. Okada in his article on Furniture (Chodo), Tokyo National Museum's periodical (Nihon no Bijutsu) (Japanese Art), July 1966, no.3. Another lacquer tray in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, executed in the same technique and featuring a similar phoenix amidst exotic blooms is illustrated by Regina Krahl and Brian Morgan, Chinese Lacquer from the 13th to 16th Centuries, 1989, p.84, no.1.
Compare a similar green-lacquered trunk from the Song Dynasty, illustrated by Lee Yu-kuan, Oriental Lacquer Art, Tokyo, 1972, p.110, no.47, decorated with phoenix in the same technique of incising designs into lacquer and filling it in with gold (qiangjin). Further similar trunks are in the Shoso-in imperial repository in Nara, and are discussed by Professor J. Okada in his article on Furniture (Chodo), Tokyo National Museum's periodical (Nihon no Bijutsu) (Japanese Art), July 1966, no.3. Another lacquer tray in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, executed in the same technique and featuring a similar phoenix amidst exotic blooms is illustrated by Regina Krahl and Brian Morgan, Chinese Lacquer from the 13th to 16th Centuries, 1989, p.84, no.1.