Page 255 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

Exquisitely carved with two long-tail birds among lush
blooms, this dish is among the earliest surviving examples
of lacquer ware carved with a figurative motif. The sensitive
and lively rendering of the composition, with the two birds
skilfully carved in a moment of flight, one bending its head
dramatically to look at the other, and large blooms and
tendrils intertwining to add depth, is exceptional. While the
surface is densely filled with flowers, the carver has left
ample space between the blooms and leaves to expose the
sharply contrasting yellow ground.
The origin of carved lacquer is a matter of debate among
scholars and connoisseurs of Chinese art.
While carved fragments of a lacquered hide armour from the
Tang dynasty are known from the Tang dynasty (618-906),
it is in the Southern Song period that lacquer thick enough
for relief carving was first made. Wares of this type required
the highly laborious and time-consuming build-up of lacquer
layers, and were thus considered highly luxurious. These
early carved lacquer wares share a number of distinctive
features including the exceptional quality of their carving, a
smooth and a lustrous finish and an almost reflective yellow
or cinnabar ground. The designs were carefully conceived in
and meticulously executed, as suggested by the generous
spacing of the different decorative elements.
The majority of extant examples of carved lacquer ware
from the Song dynasty were preserved in Japan or in
private collections; three rectangular trays carved with
related motifs of two birds in flight among flowers, were
included in the exhibition Chinese Carved Lacquerworks of
the Song Dynasty, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 2004,
cat. nos 17-19, together with a cinnabar lacquer circular
dish with cranes, cat. no. 24. A cinnabar lacquer tray of
this form carved a pair of birds among various flowers, in
the Los Angeles County Museum, is illustrated in George
Kuwayama, Far Eastern Lacquers, Los Angeles, 1978; and
a circular lacquer box, was sold in our London rooms, 16th
May 2007, lot 18. See also a dish attributed between the late
Southern Song and early Yuan period, carved with phoenix
among flowers in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., published in T. Lawson,
Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C.,
1987, pl. 168; and another sold in our New York rooms, 18th
September 2007, lot 22.
The elegant theme of pairs of birds surrounded by lush
flowers and leaves appears to have its origins in the Tang
dynasty, when it was depicted on various media including
textile and silver. It made its first appearance on lacquer
in the Southern Song period and continued to be popular
through to the Qing dynasty.

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