Page 118 - Christie's IMPORTANT CHINESE Ceramics and Works of Art may 28 2021 hk

A MAGNIFICENT AND EXTREMELY

RARE SONG DYNASTY TIXI

LACQUER TRAY

Rosemary Scott,
Senior International Academic Consultant Asian Art

This rare and particularly beautiful Song dynasty tixi comes from a tomb dated to the second year of the
lacquer tray has been preserved as an heirloom by a Duanping 端平 period (AD 1235). In 1992 tixi items
Japanese family. It was acquired in the Edo period closer in style to the current dish were excavated
(AD 1603-1867) by the owner of a sake brewery from Southern Song tombs in Minqing xian 閩請
in Osaka and passed down through generations of 縣 , Fuzhou City, Fujian, including a small round
his descendants to the current owner. The tray is box and the fragments of a larger box (see ibid., nos.
an especially fine example of Song dynasty lacquer 122 and 123). Amongst the tixi lacquers excavated
decorated using a technique known in Japan as guri from Song dynasty tombs in Jiangsu province are a
屈輪 lacquer. The name guri is a term referring to mirror case, a round, domed, box excavated in 1991,
the designs on the lacquer, which resemble the form and a fan handle (see ibid., nos. 124, 129, and 130).
of a sword pommel. In China this type of lacquer However, the excavated tixi lacquer closest in terms
is called tixi ( 剔犀 , literally ‘carved rhinoceros’), of style and fineness of execution to the current
while in English it is best described as ‘carved layered dish is a rectangular dressing case with internal tray,
lacquer’. The technique involves the application which was excavated from a Jin dynasty tomb in
of successive layers of differently coloured lacquer Datong City, Shanxi province (see In a Myriad of
through which are carved linear designs using a Forms: The Ancient Chinese Lacquers, op. cit., pp. 90-1,
u-shaped or v-shaped cut in order to display the no. 49).
different coloured layers. The current dish benefits
from three different colours – brown, red and ochre This last rectangular box shares with the current dish
– the top layer being glossy brown. wide grooves, which display the differently coloured
lacquer layers particularly well, and a narrow,
The tixi technique can be seen very occasionally especially fluent, top layer of black lacquer, which
on lacquers as early as the Han to Three Kingdoms gives the design a refined delicacy. It is interesting
period (206 BC-AD 280) and the Shanghai to note that similar fine scrolling designs have
Museum has in its collection a small tixi lacquer been found on moulded bricks excavated from a
box of this date (see 中國 歷代漆器藝術 In a Myriad decorative path in the ruins of the garden belonging
of Forms: The Ancient Chinese Lacquers, Shanghai, to an important Northern Song government
2018, pp. 82-3, no. 44). However, these sophisticated building at Luoyang, which was the western capital
lacquers with carved scrolling designs came to of the Northern Song dynasty and was known
prominence amongst the luxury items treasured by as a significant cultural centre (see Top 100 New
the elite in the Song dynasty. Excavated examples Archaeological Discoveries of China 1990-1999, 中國十年
of Song dynasty carved lacquer are rare, but as early 百大考古新發現 , Beijing, 2002, p. 745).
as 1957 a box was published (see Shi Shuqing 史
樹青 , Qi lin zhi xiaolu ( 漆林識小錄 A short note Amongst Song dynasty tixi lacquers preserved in
on lacquer inscriptions), Wenwu 文物 , No. 7, 1957, international collections, the examples which most
pp. 56-7. Unfortunately, the 1957 report in Wenwu closely match the complexity and delicacy of design
only illustrated a rubbing of the design on the top, of the current dish are a circular box and tray in the
but the piece is, nevertheless, significant for two collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya,
reasons. Firstly, it has on the base an inscription a rectangular tray from the same collection – both
reading Zhenghe nian zhi 政和年製 (made in the included in the exhibition The Colors and Forms
Zhenghe reign, AD 1111-1118) and, secondly, on the of Song and Yuan China – Featuring Lacquerwares,
interior of its lid is a seal mark reading gong bao 宮寶 Ceramics, and Metalwares 宋元の美 – 伝來の漆器
(palace treasure), which indicates that as early as the を中心に , Nezu Institute of Fine Arts 根津美術館 ,
th
beginning of the 12 century carved lacquers were Tokyo, 2004, nos. 45 and 51, and a dish of similar size
being made for the Northern Song court. to the current dish, which was included in the same
exhibition, no. 50. It is interesting to note that the
In the 1980s and 1990s tixi lacquers were excavated Nezu exhibition included another Southern Song
from a small number of Southern Song and Jin dyansty tixi lacquer dish of similar size to the current
dynasty sites in Jiangsu, Fujian and Shanxi provinces. dish (exhibit no. 58), while the Special Exhibition –
In 1986 two multi-Tiered boxes were excavated Oriental Lacquer Arts 特別展 – 東洋の漆工芸 held at
from Southern Song tombs at Chayuanshan 茶園 the Tokyo National Museum in 1977 included three
山 , Fuzhou City, Fujian (see Zhongguo meishu quanji dishes of similar shape and size (see catalogue nos. 31,
- Zhongguo qiqi quanji, 4 Sanguo-Yuan 中國 美術 全 32 and 38). It seems likely that this particular shape
集 – 中國漆器全集 4 三國 - 元 , Fuzhou, 1998, nos. and size of dish was particularly revered in Japan,
120 and 121). Both boxes have red lacquer as the possibly for use in tea ritual, and has therefore been
top tier. One of the boxes has three sections and carefully preserved. Even amongst these treasured
has lobed sides tiered (no. 121), while the other is heirlooms, the current dish stands out for its quality
octagonal and has four sections (no. 120). The latter of execution and fine condition.