Page 39 - Chinese Decorative Arts: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 55, no. 1 (Summer, 1997)

Box with Pommel
Design
....................................................................................
Yuan 13th-14th century
dynasty,
Ivory
Diam. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm)
Promised Florence and Herbert
Gift of
Irving
tylistic features help date this box to the
Yuan period. The surface has been carved
into a curvilinear design usually called the
"pommel-scroll" pattern. Used on lacquers
as well as ivories, it is derived from the shape
of the ring pommel of early Chinese swords.
It also became a popular motif in Japanese
lacquers and is better known today by the
Japanese term guri. The pommel-scroll design
was developed during the late Song period
and was particularly widespread from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The treat-
ment of the pattern on this box is typical of
fourteenth-century renderings: the deeply
carved and fully sculpted pommels are shown
in high relief and are divided by deep, narrow
grooves. theme in the ornamentation of the ceramic light in a night filled with their scent. The red
A flowering plum tree and a crescent moon, Jizhou wares made in Jiangxi Province. The staining on the interior indicates that the box
made of ivory, gold leaf, lacquer, and glass image has been associated with a line from a once held seal ink. However, it was most likely
beads, have been inlaid in the box interior. This verse by Chen Yuyi (1090-I1139), a member intended for storing toiletries or medicines.
motif is common in thirteenth- and fourteenth- of the Jiangxi school of poets, who evokes DPL
century decorative arts and was a significant the shadows of the plum blossoms by moon-

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