Lot 43. A superbly carved cinnabar lacquer 'magpie' tray signed Yang Mao, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 31.8 cm, 12 ½ in. Estimate: 600,000 - 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,268,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

of circular form, the interior carved through layers of red lacquer with a pair of confronting magpies with outstretched wings and long tail plumage flying amidst peony blossoms wreathed in profuse foliage, the underside carved with ruyi scrolls, the base lacquered black and incised with the inscription Yang Mao zao ('Made by Yang Mao'), Japanese wood box.

Property from the Kaisendo Museum.

Note: The finely carved design of two magpies amidst peonies on this exquisite dish represents a popular design motif of the Yuan dynasty. Another example in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, signed by the other famous Yuan dynasty lacquer carver Zhang Cheng, was included in the exhibition Carved Lacquer, Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 52. Compare also a lacquer tray signed Yang Mao, similarly composed with long-tailed birds depicted flying amidst peony blossoms, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2005, lot 1335. Another circular lacquer dish size from Nishihonganji West Temple, Kyoto, also signed Yang Mao, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th November 2005, lot 1529. It is of slightly smaller size than the current dish, carved with a design of lotus flowers in a lotus pond.

The carved design on the underside, 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 so successfully rendered here, 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 end of the Yuan dynasty (Xinzeng gegu yaolun [New expanded edition of the essential criteria of antiquities], vol. 8, p. 2).

Sotheby's. Monochrome II, 9 October 2020, Hong Kong