Page 18 - Elegantly Made, Art For The Literati, 2020, J.J. Lally, New York

2. A SMALL CIR CUL AR CINN ABAR L ACQUER BOX AND C OVER
Early Ming Dynasty, 15th Century

of cushion shape, the domed cover decorated with a profusion of orchids in lush layered relief, with
finely detailed loose-petaled blooms overlapping long blade-shaped leaves, all brilliantly carved
through the crimson red cinnabar lacquer above a yellow ochre ground, the same dense pattern
repeated on the shallow sides of the box, resting on a rounded rimless ring foot, the interiors and
the recessed base lacquered black.

Diameter 2 ⁄8 inches (6.8 cm)
5
Provenance Japanese Private Collection
Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art,
1 June 2011, lot 3835
Shuisongshi Shanfang Collection

Compare the circular cinnabar lacquer box carved with very similar orchid decoration in the collection of the Nezu Institute
of Fine Arts, Tokyo, shown in a traveling exhibition organized by the Nezu and the Tokugawa Art Museum and illustrated
in the catalogue, Chōshitsu: urushi no rerifu (Carved Lacquer), Tokyo, 1984, p. 141, no. 200.
Compare also the larger circular cinnabar lacquer box carved with a similar arrangement of orchids and plum blossoms,
in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin daxi (The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum) Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 70, no.
48, described as Yongle period (1402-1424).
明十五世紀 剔紅蘭紋小圓盒 徑 6.8 厘米

來源 日本私人收藏
香港佳士得 2011 年 6 月 1 日，拍品第 3835 號
水松石山房藏