Square cinnabar lacquer tray
Ming Dynasty, early 16th century
Dimensions: 19.5 cm² | 7 11/16 in²

Click image for full-size version

Square with rounded corners, the tray has shallow curving sides and a flat base that is raised upon a square foot rim. The interior depicts a scholar within a pavilion beside a lake fringed with bamboo, pine and plum trees – known as the Three Friends – amongst ornamental rockwork and acer trees; an attendant crosses a rustic bridge to the pavilion carrying a flowering branch. The background is composed of a two diaper ground that represents the water and the sky. A continuous band of leaves and flowers of the four seasons decorates the interior and exterior sides, and the base is lacquered in brown with a fine crackleur.

Similar examples: Masterpieces of Chinese Carved Lacquer Ware in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1971 – plate 22. This fine rectangular tray is simply dated Ming; it shares many characteristics including the solid construction, the style of the rockwork details, clouds, acer trees and the spacing of the floral border.

Chinese Carved Lacquer, Derek Clifford, Bamboo Publishing, 1992 – plate 67 illustrates an oblong tray in the Palace Museum, Beijing that is dated to the second half of the 15th century; and plate 66, ‘The Necromancer’ tray is dated to the early 16th century.