Page 55 - 2020 Nov 30 Christie's Hong Kong Scholars Art Of China

This box is extremely rare as there do not appear to be any other Dragons of this distinctive style are also found on stoneware vessels
lacquer carvings from this early period with such a prominent central dating to the Yuan period, such as the relief moulded biscuit dragons
dragon reserved on an uncluttered ground. on a Longquan celadon charger in the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
illustrated by S. Lee and W.K Ho, op. cit, pl. 81 and another smaller dish
The box can best be compared to several lacquer boxes carved with from G. de Menasce collection, illustrated by Margaret Medley, Yuan
two or three chilong dragons, dated between the late Song to Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 62B.
dynasty (13-14th century). The first and the closest example is a black
lacquer box with a pair of very similar dragons each grasped in its The rims each encircled by a single large keyfret border is a feature
mouth a lingzhi sprig amongst related cloud scrolls, illustrated in Gems found on lacquers of the Yuan dynasty, such as the seal paste box
of Chinese Art, From the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery decorated with the poet Dao Qian in a garden picking chrysanthemum,
Brundage Collection, Hong Kong, 1983, no. 85. A cinnabar lacquer box excavated in 1954 from the tomb of the Ren Family, now in the
carved with three similar chilong and bearing a Yang Mao signature, Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Miroir des arts de la Chine, Le Musée
from the Ryogen-in Collection in Kyoto, was exhibited at the Tokugawa de Shanghai, Ed. Zhen Zhiyu, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1981,
Art Museum and Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Carved Lacquer, 10 no. 197.
October to 2 December 1984, no. 180. A stylistically freer version with
more abstract dragons in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated The result of Art-Science Consulting, Haigerloch, Switzerland carbon
in East Asian Lacquer, The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New 14 test no. ETH 34605-01231107 is consistent with the dating of this
York, 1991, no. 16. Compare also to a larger box dated to the Yuan lot.
dynasty, with three closely related confronted dragons amid a long
stems of lingzhi illustrated by Sherman Lee and Wai-Kam Ho, Chinese
Art under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), The Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1968, no. 293.

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