Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 December 2010, Hong Kong
A very rare Ming cinnabar tixi lacquer bracket-lobed lozenge-shaped tray, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century
Lot 3077. A very rare Ming cinnabar tixi lacquer bracket-lobed lozenge-shaped tray, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century; 12 in. (30.5 cm.) wide. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2010
The mouth rim in the shape of eight elegant brackets with the highest points forming the four corners, the interior carved at the centre with a stylised floral bloom, surrounded by four confronted pairs of spectacle-shaped ruyi scroll, within bands of further outward-facing scrolls, the exterior carved with undulating stylised classic scroll, supported on a conforming bracket-lobed foot, the base with black lacquer, faintly incised to one side with the three-character mark Zhang Cheng zao, Japanese wood box.
Provenance: Nishi Honganji Temple, Kyoto
A Japanese private collection, acquired at a Kyoto auction in 1913.
Note: Whilst few other comparable examples of bracket-lobed tixi lacquer trays of this rare form appear to be published, a bracket-lobed lozenge-shaped dish of identical form and similar design is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. The dish was originally published in Gugong Qiqi Tezhan Mulu, A Special Exhibition of Lacquerwares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, no. 75 and dated to the Yuan dynasty. The same dish was later included in the exhibition Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors, Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 036 and dated to the 16th century. While an earlier dating can not be ruled out, comparisons with the carving on Jiajing-marked tixi lacquer ewer form the Lee Family Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2126 seem to corroborate a mid-Ming dating. Another lozenge-form tixi lacquer dish inscribed with a Zhang Cheng mark tentatively dated to the Xuande period is illustrated by Lee Yu-kuan, Oriental Lacquer Art, Tokyo, 1971, p. 178, no. 109. Compare also a 15th century dish of related but more compressed, square form, from the Lee Family Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong 3 December 2008, lot 2125. Another Yongle-marked cinnabar lacquer dish of similar bracket-lobed square form carved with figures in landscape, in the Beijing Palace Museum Collection, is illustrated in Carved Lacquerware, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2008, p. 46, no. 24.