Page 121 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

not be out of the question. However, the central design of our tray, and in
particular the treatment of inlay and incised details, (rather more detailed
and precise than the loosely-incised markings on the Yuan antecedent)
found on the figures themselves, the clothing, architectural details and
areas of rockwork, suggests a Ming dating, whilst still clearly in an overall
Yuan style.

For other Yuan and early Ming dynasty dishes with similar courtly pavilion
scenes and scrolling multi-flowerhead borders, see the Catalogue,
Special Exhibition, Oriental Lacquer Arts, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo,
1977, no. 492, for a circular dish (13 1/2 inches diam.) dated Yuan/early
Ming Dynasty, from the Hakutsuru Art Museum, Hyogo; and also The
Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China, Featuring Lacquerwares,
Ceramics and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2004,
no’s 124-125, the latter box also octagonal in shape, a popular one
during the Yuan dynasty. Another example, nine-sided, is illustrated by
Denise Patry Leidy, Mother-of-Pearl, A Tradition in Asian Lacquer, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006, pp.26-31, figs 22-24.
130 (detail)

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