Lot 3853 . A black lacquer barbed bowl stand, Song dynasty (960-1279); 17.2 cm, Japanese wood box. Lot Sold 240,000 HKD (Estimate 200,000 - 300,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance : Ujiya, Nagoya, Japan, with an accompanying note dated 31st March 1919.

Lot 3849. A cinnabar 'tixi' lacquer box and cover, Signed Yang Mao, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 11.3 cm, Japanese wood box. Lot Sold 420,000 HKD (Estimate 250,000 - 500,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2024

Note: The carved design on the current box, known as  tixi  or the Japanese term,  guri  (curves and circles), was a pattern established towards the end of the Song dynasty. The scrolling foliage design on the current box, referred to as  juancao  (scrolling grass) or  xiangcao  (fragrant grass), first appeared on Song dynasty lacquerwares and enjoyed considerable popularity well into the Yuan dynasty.

On the base, the present box bears the needle-engraved signature  Yang Mao zao  ('made by Yang Mao'). Yang Mao is known from  Gegu yaolun  [The essential criteria of antiquities] by Cao Zhao of 1388, where he and Zhang Cheng , both of Xitang in Jiaxing district, Zhejiang province, southwest of modern Shanghai, are mentioned as carvers of red lacquer who became famous at the end of the Yuan dynasty ( Xinzeng  gegu yaolun  [New expanded edition of the essential criteria of antiquities], vol. 8, p. 2).

A closely related Yuan dynasty cinnabar  tixi  lacquer box, also signed Yang Mao, but slightly smaller in size, is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 91.1.645. Compare two other examples inscribed with the name of Yang Mao: one sold in our London rooms, 16th May 2012, lot 68; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30th April 2001, lot 642, and again in our New York rooms, 15th March 2017, lot 569.

Lot 3854. A mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer cup stand, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 15.6 cm, Japanese wood box. Lot Sold 7,000 HKD (Estimate 60,000 - 200,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2024

Lot 3847. A rare cinnabar 'tixi' lacquer lobed bowl stand, Yuan-Ming dynasty (1279-1644); 19 cm. Lot Sold 420,000 HKD (Estimate 250,000 - 500,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3rd April 2019, lot 3673.