Lot 134. A rare mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer dish, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 8 3/8 in. (21.2 cm.) square. Estimate $12,000 - $18,000. Price Realized $25,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2008

The dish of quatrefoil form elaborately inlaid in the recessed center panel with mother-of-pearl with a luohan seated beneath a pine tree upon a large rock and dressed in open robes tied at the waist, his right hand raised holding a ring which he uses to beckon a tiger gazing back at him from across a narrow stream, framed by four shaped cartouches containing lotus scroll reserved on a diaper ground, the whole raised on a short foot of conforming shape inlaid with diaper pattern, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Japanese private collection. 

Notes: The style of the inlay on this tray is similar to that seen on a square tray decorated with a different pictorial scene illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Mother-of-Pearl Inlay in Chinese Lacquer Art, 19 June - 29 July 1979, Tokyo National Museum, no. 35, as well as on nos. 37 and 38, which are of petal-lobed outline. All are dated 15th-16th century. As with the present dish, the scenes may be taken from woodblock prints of the Wanli period (1573-1619). 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 17 September 2008, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.