Lot 3204. A very rare and fine bracket-lobed black lacquer dish, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty, 13th-14th century; 7 in. (18 cm.) wide, Japanese fitted wood box. Estimate HK$1,500,000 - HK$2,000,000 ($194,359 - $259,145). Price Realized HK$1,840,000 ($238,358). © Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The bracket-lobed dish has shallow rounded sides which rise to an everted, beaded rim, and stands on a recessed, flat base. It is lacquered all over in dark brown, suffused with fine crackles. 

Provenance: An Important Collection of Early Chinese Lacquer, Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 April 2001, lot 627
Property from a Private American Collection.

Note: The current dish is exceptionally well formed with crisp moulding, and is a beautiful example of fine lacquer wares of the Southern Song/early Yuan period. Its elegant form, with its everted and beaded rim, is pobably inspired by metal works dated to the Southern Song period, such as a set of four octa-bracket lobed silver dishes (fig.1) excavated in the Lujiashan hoard in Jiangxi, illustrated in Zhongguo jinyin boli falang quanji II, Hebei, 2004, no. 216, p. 121. Compare a slightly larger lacquer dish of identical form in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Lacquerware, Taipei, 1987, no. 42, p. 44 (fig. 2)

The Japanese wood box containing this lacquer dish has a red seal which reads 'The collection of Kosugi Genro-uemon'. 

Christie's. THE SOUND OF JADE AND THE SHADOW OF A CHRYSANTHEMUM, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014