Note: Whilst red lacquer dishes of this mallow-shape are known, black lacquer examples are particularly rare. The S-shaped overlap of the bow-edged petals on this dish creates an elegant form that also became popular on fine metalwork and imperial ceramics in the Northern Song dynasty. A similar dish also bound with a metal rim, slightly larger at 15.5 cm. wide, was included in the exhibition, Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors, Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 1. The National Palace Museum dish has an indecipherable circular red sealmark impressed on its base.

For comparable black lacquer dishes of this shape, cf. a dish without the fitted metal mouth rim, included in the exhibition, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, 1993, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 50, no. 18, bearing a two-character Caiji mark which the authors suggested may be the name of the shop where the dish was sold or the name of the owner; and a dish sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29/30 April 2001, lot 621.

Christie's. Important Chinese Lacquer Wares from the Lee Family Collection, Hong Kong, 3 December 2008