明萬曆

The present dish belongs to an extremely rare group of dated Wanli period dishes predominantly decorated in brownish yellow lacquer. All known examples from this group display the very highest standards of workmanship of the period and for centuries have been held in extremely high regard among collectors of lacquer. Most extant examples of this group are either in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, or the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Three yellow lacquer pieces in the National Palace Museum Taipei were included in the Special Exhibition of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, nos. 31-33. These include a rectangular tray with a pair of confronted dragons, a circular dish with a dragon and phoenix, and a round dragon dish bearing the same yiwei cyclical date, very similar in composition to the present example but with the dragon shown descending rather than ascending. A dish identical to the National Palace Museum example, in the Sir Harry and Lady Garner Collection, was included in the 1957 Oriental Ceramics Society Exhibition, Arts of the Ming Dynasty, and in the 1973 British Museum exhibition of Chinese and Associated Lacquer from the Garner Collection, London, illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 32a, no. 73. A single red-ground yellow lacquer dish in the Beijing Palace Museum with the same yiwei cyclical date depicting a dragon and phoenix contesting a 'flaming pearl' is illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 211, no. 168. Yellow lacquer is also very highly prized in Japan and two examples of the same design as the present dish remain in private collections there. The first was in the Nabeshima Collection which was included in an exhibition of tea ceremony pieces at the 1989 Chado Shiyokan Museum, Kyoto, Cha no Yu no Shikki - Karamono. A second example was sold at the Osaka Bijutsu club in March 2010 for a world record price for Jiajing carved lacquer.

The yiwei year (1595) was one of the few principle years that all types of lacquer, red, yellow, polychrome and tianqi were produced in the official Wanli workshops. It was also the year with more extant dated pieces than any other year in the Wanli reign period.

The production of yellow lacquer continued, although reserved for the finest quality wares, well into the Qing dynasty. A Qianlong period yellow lacquer Chun, 'Spring', box and cover in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 84, no. 59, displays some of the finest carving of the period.