Of rounded rectangular shape, the box and cover deeply carved in tixi style with elegant classic ruyi motifs between scrollwork through alternating layers of lustrous black, red, green and yellow lacquer.

Provenance: The Nagata Collection, Tokyo, Japan.

Literature: The Colours and Forms of Song and Yuan China, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2004, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 62.

Note:  Rectangular vessels are especially rare in tixi or guri lacquer, however several have been found in excavations. A rectangular red lacquer box (20 x 11.8 x 6 cm.) dated to the Yuan dynasty is now in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated by J. Watt and B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992, p. 49-50, no. 6. This box shares with the current example the design element of ruyi motifs which wrap around the corners of the form. This risky style of decoration required great skill and confidence, and was abandoned by later decorators, as can be seen on the Ming rectangular box in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrated ibid., p. 61, no. 15, which has a design element on either side of each corner, but leaves the corner edge plain. A rectangular black tixi lacquer box of slightly different dimensions (13.4 x 11.1 x 8.5 cm.) and with a different arrangement of scrolls, dated to the early Ming dynasty was exhibited in Osaka in 1991, illustrated by Hirano Kotoken, Chinese Lacquer Works, Osaka, pp. 74-5, no. 48.