Lot 1223. A superb and extremely rare carved red lacquer rectangular tray, Yuan dynasty, first half 14th century; 14 ½ in. (36.7 cm.) long. Estimate USD 180,000 - USD 220,000. Price realised USD 212,5000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The tray is exquisitely carved through thick layers of red lacquer with two long-tailed pheasants swooping amidst dense foliage with peony blossoms on the interior, the exterior sides with a classic scroll, and the base is lacquered black.

Provenance: Private collection, Japan.
Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2011, lot 3050.

Note: The present tray is exceptional for the superb quality of carving and its unusual form. Only one other closely comparable example appears to have been published. A tray of almost identical size and design, but with the addition of a Yang Mao zao mark incised on the inner side of the foot, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2005, lot 1335. 

Another closely related rectangular tray with similar birds and flowers, from the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, is illustrated in Karamono, Imported Lacquerwork - Chinese, Korean and Ryukyuan (Okinawa), Japan, 1997, no. 19. The composition on the Tokugawa example is read horizontally, while that on the current tray is vertically oriented. 

The subject of two birds in flight amidst flowers and foliage was very popular during the Song and Yuan dynasties, and can be found most often in a circular compositions as on a dish or round box, where the bodies of the birds and their long flowing tail feathers form a circular motion. See, for example, the dish from the Tokugawa Art Museum, included in the same exhibition, and illustrated in the Catalogue, ibid., no. 21.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 13 - 14 September 2018