Lot 40. A carved black and red guri lacquer bowlstand, Ming dynasty, 15th century; diameter 15.5 cm., 6 1/8 in. Estimate 250,000 — 300,000 HKD. Lot sold 375,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2014

of globular form with rounded sides collared with a six-lobed dish resembling a mallow flower, all supported on a hollow flared foot, deeply carved overall through thick layers of black and red lacquer, the foot and the bowl with five ruyi-head shaped pommels, the lobed dish with nine further pommels contained within a round lip and repeated on the underside, the layers of red lacquer appearing in two thin lines sandwiched between the layers of lustrous brownish-black guri

Exposition: 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer. Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 31.
Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 32.

Note: Bowlstands with a six-lobed flange, as seen on the present piece, are rare, although one, in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, is illustrated in Karamono. Imported Lacquer – Chinese, Korean and Ryukyuan (Okinawa), Tokyo, 1997, pl. 8; another was offered in our New York rooms, 8th May 1981, lot 77; and a further example, from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Shanghai, 2006, pl. 10. See also a stand of this elegant shape, but of the Song dynasty, included in the exhibition 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 23, which may have served as the prototype to this piece.

Lacquer bowlstands with a circular flange are more readily available; for example see one from the collection of Edward T. Chow, sold at Christie’s London, 14th December 1983, lot 20, attributed to the 16th century; another in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, included in the museum’s exhibition Carved Lacquer, Nagoya, 1984, cat. no. 20; a third bowlstand of this type sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 583; and one in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 27. 

For the inspiration see a tixi lacquer bowlstand, attributed to the Song and Yuan periods, from the Lee Family collection and included in five exhibitions around the world, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd December 2008, lot 2114.

Sotheby's. The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Part 1, Hong Kong, 08 avr. 2014