Page 106 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM THE MEE-DIN AND ROBERT W. MOORE PROPERTY FROM THE MEE-DIN AND ROBERT W. MOORE
COLLECTION OF CHINESE LACQUER COLLECTION OF CHINESE LACQUER
110 111
A TIXI BLACK AND CINNABAR LACQUER CIRCULAR A TIXI BLACK AND CINNABAR LACQUER ALMS BOWL
SHALLOW-DOMED BOX AND COVER OE WEIQI BOX
Ming Dynasty, 15th/16th Century Ming Dynasty
With steep rising sides and almost flat upper surface, the cover carved The deep steep-sided tapering bowl (or possibly counter box) with a
in low rounded relief with three graduated rows of pommel scrolls rounded shoulder and deeply carved with V-shaped channels through
radiating outward from a four-pointed central motif, the box with a multiple layers of black and cinnabar lacquer with two registers of large
single register of differing ruyi-shaped pommel-like scrolls above a pommel scrolls stopping neatly at a plain band at the incurving rim and
tall foot ring, the base plain and centered by a red-lacquered number above a single register of smaller tailed-scrolls and a plain band at the
shisan (thirteen). incurving foot.
7in (17.7cm) diameter 5in (12.7cm) across, later Japanese silver cover

$3,000 - 5,000 $3,000 - 4,000

明 十五/十六世紀 剔犀如意雲紋圓盒 明 剔犀如意雲紋小罐 後配日本銀蓋

The style of carving on our box combined with the use of only a single For early 15th century alms bowls in cloisonne, see Sotheby’s, Hong
layer of cinnabar lacquer to highlight the design of the pommel-scrolls, Kong, The Speelman Collection II, 3 October 2018, lot 3411 and
can be compared to that on a tixi black lacquer box of octagonal another sold at Christie’s, Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 28 May
shape, dated 14th-15th century, in the Florence and Herbert Irving 2007, lot 1435. For other later lacquer alms bowls of differing design,
Collection illustrated by James C. Watt and Barbara B. Ford, East see Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, 8
Asian Lacquer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. October 2009, lot 1828, itself related to another illustrated in Carved
57-58, no. 12. However, the authors note that the gentle curvature Lacquer In the Palce Museum, Beijing, 1985, pp. 354-355, fig. 1.
of the relief design, which is also mirrored in ours, distinguishes the
box from the standard Yuan style of carving, which exhibts deeply- For a later imperial blue and white porcelain alms bowl with a register
cut rounded scrolls in high relief and often deeper V-shaped grooving of ruyi-heads at the shoulder which bear a passing resemblance
rather than the shallow U-shape exhibited in the Metroplitan Museum to the pommel-scrolls on ours, see Christie’s, New York, 23 March
example and ours. They continue, that this type of tixi carving style 2011, lot 1678.
is generally assigned a Ming date, and indeed it does bear the same
relationship to Yuan tixi that early Ming blue-and-white porcelain bears By Buddhist law, the ‘alms’ bowl is the only item a monk is allowed to
to its Yuan predecessor. possess. The begging bowl (bo) was a monk’s necessity. A number of
Chinese emperor’s were devout Buddhists, and numerous Buddhist
For a very slightly larger cinquefoil box and cover of similar design but implements and artworks were created under their direction. Many
with two layers (the more usual combination) of cinnabar lacquer to examples of alms bowls made during these different reigns in materials
highlight the pommel scrolls, and dated to the fifteenth century, see as different as jade, cloisonné enamel and lacquer are well recorded.
Christie’s, New York, 21 March 2007, lot 172. Another very similar, but
slightly larger, example dated 15th/16th century is illustrated by Klaus The shape of this elegant, volumetric bowl, with its simple, bold form
J. Brandt, Chinesische Lackarbeiten, Linden-Museum Stuttgart, 1988, is probably derived from metalwork introduced from Persia or Central
pp. 72-73, no. 27. Asia. The style of bowl was originally used in Indian Buddhist practice.

For a very slightly larger and slightly later box and cover dated to the The possibility that this may indeed be a weiqi counter box rather than
16th Century with additional thin layers of cinnabar to highlight the an alms bowl should not be discounted however, as evidenced by the
design, see Christie’s, London, 5 November 2012, lot 179 and another the addition of a simple cover, in this case a Japanese silver one that
sold at Christie’s, Hong Kong, 30 May 2012, lot 4225. can simply transform its use.

104 | BONHAMS