Page 212 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
1228
A LARGE MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID BLACK LACQUER QUATREFOIL TRAY
MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY
The shaped tray is inlaid with a scene of the three oficials watching an attendant feeding a crane in a
court surrounded by pine, bamboo and prunus, the ‘Three Friends of Winter’, while a lady and another
fgure observe from an adjacent pavilion.
16√ in. (42.8 cm.) long, cloth box

$50,000-70,000

PROVENANCE
J.J. Lally & Co., New York, July 2009.
Compare the mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer octagonal dish of petal-lobed outline decorated with
a related scene of fgures in a garden, dated to the second half of the 16th century, illustrated by J. C. Y.
Watt and B. B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 135-6, no. 60. The dating of the Irving dish is based on its similarity
to other dishes of this type, all of which have “pictorial designs that correspond to woodblock prints of
the Wanli” period. The authors also discuss the openwork cutting of the shell inlay and how it appears to
be typical of the period. Particularly noteworthy are the rendering of the face and wave-ground robe of
the lady in the pavilion on the present dish which are very similar to that seen on the ladies on the Irving
dish.
明十六世紀 黑漆螺鈿觀鶴圖海棠式盤

(another view)

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