Lot 36. A carved cinnabar lacquer stembowl, Ming dynasty, Yongle-Xuande period; 16 cm., 6 1/4 in. Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 937,500 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

the bowl with deep rounded sides rising to a flared rim, all supported on a splayed stem with a sealed flat base, deftly and deeply carved through thick layers of rich red lacquer to the ochre ground below with four large lotus blooms wreathed in dense curling foliage, between a border of ‘classic’ scroll collaring the rim and a band of radiating petal panels encircling the base, the stem decorated with interlocked floral scrolls centred with a floret, the interior and the base lacquered black

Exhibited: 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer. Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 49.
Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 39.

Note: This stembowl is a rare example of early Ming lacquerware, attributable to the Yongle or Xuande reign periods for its shape and floral decoration that is reminiscent of blue and white stembowls of the early Ming dynasty. For example, see a blue and white Xuande mark and period stembowl painted with a peony scroll motif included in the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty,National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 102, together with another similar stembowl bearing a hibiscus scroll motif, cat. no. 103.

For lacquer comparisons, see a slightly larger stembowl of related form carved with a dragon design, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, vol. 5, Fuzhou, 1995, pl. 72; another carved with a figural scene, illustrated in Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pp. 123-128, col. pl. C and pls. 60-63, and in Derek Clifford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, London, 1992, pl. 65, and later sold at Christie’s London, 16th November 1998, lot 13. A further pair of lacquer stembowls, decorated with a continuous landscape scene, was included in the exhibition From Innovation to Conformity. Chinese Lacquer from the 13th to 16th Centuries, Bluett and Sons, London, 1989, cat. no. 24.

Sotheby's. The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Part 1, Hong Kong, 08 Apr 2014