40 | Oval cinnabar lacquer raised grape design tray Yuan dynasty, 13th century Length: 29 cm | 11 7/16 in Width: 18.5 cm | 7 9/32 in Click image for full-size version In lacquer of the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties, elaborate decoration – that employed innovative techniques in its manufacture – replaced the more simple lacquer ware design of the Northern Song. Being of less practical use than the earlier wares, the resulting items were rarer – and in this oval tray we have an extraordinary decorative piece. Four bunches of grapes decorate the interior – in relief – against a low carved background of leaves, scrolling vines and further grape clusters against an ochre yellow ground. The exterior classic scrolls are of the fully developed Yuan type – with well-rounded sides, and carved sharply at the bottom, to reveal a thin ochre yellow line. Similar examples: Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985 – colour plates 19, 20, and 21 illustrate an oval tray with raised grape design, incised with a Xuande mark on the base. However, the decoration and style of the leaves – together with the scrolls on the back of the tray – are characteristic of work from the Yuan period; this suggests that the mark was added later – in the Xuande era. This view is supported by the carbon 14 test on our tray (illustrated below and opposite) that calculated the latest date as 1290 AD. Carved Lacquer, The Tokugawa Art Museum, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, 1984 – figure 122, page 88. A carbon 14 test no. RCD 6677 on this tray confirms the dating.