Page 195 - Christie's Hong Kong November 29, 2022 Fine Chinese Works of Art

The present cover was made as the front cover for the sutra Dasheng
Fawang jing, one of the 108 volumes of the bKa-gyur, or Ganjur in Chinese.
According to Dr Peter Lam in Layered Beauty, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 54,
two sets of bKa-gyur were bestowed sequentially by the Emperor Yongle
to the two Buddhist abbots from Tibet in 1413 and 1416, now preserved at
the Potala Palace and the Sera Monastery in Lhasa, respectively.
Compare a set of similar covers, dated c. 1410, published by J.C.Y. Watt
and B.B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving
Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 116-7,
where the authors note that these lacquered covers provide the earliest
examples of Ming-style qiangjin work. A further set is illustrated by R.D.
Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, no. 48.
For other similar covers sold at auctions, see a set from the Lee Family
Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Lacquer from
the Lee Family Collection, Part II, 1 December 2009, lot 1821; an inscribed
pair sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2260; a set
from the Baoyizhai Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2014,
lot 38; and a single back cover sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2017,
lot 2816.

經板為木胎，通體髹紅漆為地，飾戧金紋。正面板沿四周飾雙蓮瓣紋，板心
飾八吉祥紋中之輪、螺、傘、蓋，中央的寶瓶座上置三如意寶珠；較窄的一側
飾纏枝蓮紋，另一側飾獅面卷草紋。背面陰刻一蓮瓣形龕，龕內分別刻漢、
藏文經名。左為藏文，橫書十三行，右為漢文，首行為「大聖法王經一卷內」
下列該卷所收十八部經名。據林業強教授於《疊彩: 抱一齋藏中國漆器》所
述，《明史·西域傳三》中記載，明成祖永樂曾於永樂十一年（1413）及十四
年（1416）各賜一套《甘珠爾》予西藏佛教領袖，前者現藏布達拉宮，後者藏
色拉寺。兩部《甘珠爾》各一百零八函，每函上下有木挾板，形制與此經板
一致。

紐約大都會博物館曾展覽過一副相似例，見1991年紐約出版《East Asian
Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection》，頁116-117。李氏家族
舊藏一副，2009 年12 月1 日於香港佳士得專拍中拍賣，拍品1821 號。另一副
2012年11月28日於香港佳士得拍賣，拍品2260號。一副為抱一齋舊藏，2014
年4月8日於香港蘇富比拍賣，拍品38號。及一件下經板於香港佳士得拍賣，
拍品2816號。

(back view 背面)