Low table (or footrest), Ming Dynasty, Yongle period. Red cinnabar on a yellow background, brownish black lacquer, 14.9 x 52.8 x 20.7 cm. Ident.Nr. 1978-3. Collection: Museum of Asian Art © Photo: Museum of Asian Art, the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage.

The low table with floral decoration is one of the masterpieces of Chinese Schnitzlackarbeiten the early Ming period and comes without doubt from the imperial workshops, as two closely related pieces testify in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. At the turn of the Ming Dynasty, the two were working for their red paint Schnitzlacke most famous masterpiece, Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao. They laid the foundations of a spectacular flowering of this art in the era of Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) reached its peak. The Schnitzlackarbeit this low table offers the soft modeled section of thick resist layer and the compositional elegance of the decor. The top half shows or fully open peony flowers and buds of different sizes. The legs and cross braces are decorated except with peonies with plum blossoms, lotus and chrysanthemum. 

Fritz Löw-Beer (1906-1976), from whose collection is the work that began in the 1920s to collect Chinese lacquerware and could in the course of a few years to build up an extensive collection. He could carry on his emigration to the United States and so bring them to safety after an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1938. Increased during and after the war and improved Löw-Beer collection. The majority of the collection is now in Stuttgart Linden Museum, these stocks (186 respraying) acquired in 1978. One important lacquer art works were previously at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum in London. In 1972, the acquisition of the famous imperial throne ensemble and 1978 from the estate of the acquisition of the low table for the Berlin collection succeeded.