Cinnabar lacquer square tray
Xuande mark and period, 1426 – 1435
Dimensions: 39.9 cm² | 15 11/16 in²

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The square tray has a broad flat base, rounded sides and indented corners and is supported on a raised square foot. Its interior is decorated with a pair of opposing phoenix in flight – their open wings with finely incised feathers – amongst ten fully blooming lotus flowers, scrolling leaves, buds and stems that emerge from a rockwork base. These are depicted against a star diaper ground within a grooved quatrefoil frame. In each corner there is a single, smaller phoenix against a different symbolic flower: chrysanthemum, camellia, peony and pomegranate – amongst leaves and stems against a plain ground. The exterior is carved with a single wide band of flowering chrysanthemum, camellia, rose and pomegranate, whilst the base is lacquered in plain brown – with an incised and gilded six-character Xuande mark of the period, in a vertical line on the centre edge.

Similar examples: Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1989 – plate nos.19, 54 and 55. There are close parallels with works of art in mediums other than lacquer that demonstrate, and help to date, the period of this tray. In the Uldry Collection catalogue, comparisons are drawn with a stone relief (fig. 55), excavated in the western district of Beijing in 1966 from the ruins of the Mongol capital, Dadu – Yuan dynasty, second half of the 13th century – that depicts phoenix in flight. Plate no.19 illustrates a large basin decorated with phoenix, and compares details of this with the Sedgwick lacquer tray (fig. 54) mentioning that it has a reliable Xuande mark (also mentioning an imperial carved lacquer table in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London from the Fritz Low- Beer collection bearing a similar mark).

The Victoria and Albert Museum Low-Beer table is illustrated on page 89 of this catalogue. It is also illustrated in Chinese Furniture Michel Beurdeley, published by Kodansha International, 1979 – plate nos. 132 and 133 (depicting the table’s top). On further inspection, many details have remarkable similarities with the Sedgwick tray, specifically the treatment of the feathers, wings and tails of the phoenix, and also the concave trench forming the cartouche in which the birds are portrayed, and the reserves in the four corners with phoenix.

A 15th century rectangular lacquer panel in the British Museum, London – carved with dragons against a ground of peonies, and with phoenix, is illustrated on page 88 of this catalogue. The panel is also illustrated in Chinese Lacquer by Sir Harry Garner, Faber & Faber, London 1979 – plate 37.

Drache und Phoenix, lackarbeiten aus China, Sammlung Familie Lee, Tokyo – catalogue no. 42 illustrates another square tray, of the same size and with a Xuande mark.

Provenance: Collection of Sir Percival David; Collection of Mrs Walter Sedgwick; Collection of Mr Edward T. Chow; Collection of Mrs Virginia K. Chow.

Exhibited and illustrated: The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1957 – catalogue no. 237.

One Man’s Taste, Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, The Galleries of the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1988/89, catalogue no. L7 – also illustrated on page 5.