Lot 135. A mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer barbed dish, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) diam. Estimate $15,000 - $20,000. Price Realized $18,750. © Christie's Image Ltd 2008

The interior decorated with four elegant ladies standing beneath a willow tree in a lush gated garden with bamboo and rockwork below dense composite floral scroll in the petal-lobed well, the exterior with nine leafy S-shaped scrolls, wood box.

Note: Compare the mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer octagonal dish of petal-lobed outline decorated with a related scene of ladies in a garden, as well as with a similar floral scroll border, and dated to the second half of the 16th century, illustrated by Watt and Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 135-6, no. 60. The dating of the Irving dish is based on its similarity to other dishes of this type, all of which have "pictorial designs that correspond to woodblock prints of the Wanli" period. The authors also discuss the openwork cutting of the shell inlay and how it appears to be typical of the period. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 17 September 2008, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.