Lot 3083. A finely carved cinnabar lacquer rectangular tray, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 14 7/8 in. (37.7 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 400,000. Price Realized HKD 325,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2010

The rectangular tray raised on four short tab-feet, finely carved to the interior depicting three travelling scholars accompanied by their attendants variously holding a fan, a qinand a basket of fruit, one of the immortals shown beside a deer holding a lingzhi spray in its mouth, all set within a mountainous landscape containing bridges and pavilions beside plantain, pine and wutong issuing from pierced rockwork in the near distance and jagged mountains scattered with clouds in the far distance, reserved on alternating wanand floral-diaper grounds to depict the ground and sky, the reverse with a narrow band of blossoming prunus branches above the black lacquer base, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: The Maeda Family Collection, Japan
Acquired at an auction of the contents of Duke Maeda's house in Tokyo, 25 May 1925, lot 258
A Japanese private collection.

Note: The distinctive decorative design and style of carving is most commonly found on boxes and covers dating to this period. Compare the treatment of the figures, the rockwork, and the plantain with that found on a box and cover in the Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata prefecture, exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, Carved Lacquer and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 110, no. 151.

An unusual feature of this object is that the scene to the interior of the tray extends up the sides of the dish to the rim rather than being framed within a floral border. Another dish with a floral decorative border dating to the mid-Ming period in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 5, Ming, Fujian meishu chubanshe, 1995, pl. 75, and displays the same treatment, perhaps usually avoided in view of the difficulty of carving a continuous scene up the curved sides of the tray on an uneven plane.
The fact that the current tray is raised on four short feet is also a very rare feature as most published examples from the Ming dynasty are raised on a continuous raised foot extending around the base or do not have a foot.