Lot 206. A Ryukyuan mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer rectangular box and cover, 17th-18th century; 15 x 10 1/8 x 3 ¼in (38.1 x 25.7 x 8.2cm). Estimate US$ 2,000 - US$ 3,000. Sold for US$ 1,530. © Bonhams 2001-2021

Decorated on the flat with two scholars conversing in a dense pine and bamboo landscape with their attendants nearby one holding a fan, the other scrolls, a small building nearby and a rich foliage foreground with a small maple tree, the rounded sides of the cover with shaped panels of composite floral scrolling on a cell ground which is mirrored on the box sides.

Property from the Robert and Mee-Din Moore Collection.

Note: See Ryukyuan Lacquerware from the Urasoe Art Museum, Cultural Treasures of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Urasoe Art Museum, 1995, p. 83, no. 58, for a very similar low table also inlaid with an equestrian landscape scene and with near identical leg and feet treatment. It is dated seventeenth-eighteenth century.

For another very similar table attributed to sixteenth century Chinese production, see Christie's, London, 16 November 1998, lot 17, where it is compared to another table from a private Japanese collection exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, Chinese Mother-of-Pearl-Decorated Lacquer, Tokyo, 1980, p. 114, no. 72-1

Bonhams. Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings, New York, 20 Sep 2021