Three-colour lacquer dish
Wanli mark and period, 1573 – 1619
Diameter: 25.5 cm | 10 in

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The circular dish has curved rising sides and a slightly flaring rim. The lacquer is thick and deeply carved – exposing, at intervals, the three layers of colour: green, yellow ochre and cinnabar red.

A central scene is contained within the flat circular well and is divided into three registers – each with a separate diaper ground. At the bottom of the picture is a plain hill; on top of this, an ornamental rock is surrounded by chrysanthemum and other flowers – the leaves in green and red, below a clearly defined skyline; the sky is yellow – with butterflies and clouds in red and green. The inside walls of the dish are divided into four cartouche panels – each containing twin red flower stems – with green and red leaves against a red diaper ground. Each cartouche is separated by a single flower stem against a yellow ochre ground. The reverse is carved with a continuous single scroll of lotus flowers and leaves above a circular foot rim – the latter decorated with a key-fret band – all in red. The underside is painted in black lacquer, and incised with a gilt eight-character cyclical date of the Wanli period; this is depicted in a single line that follows the contour of the top edge and reads: Da Ming Wan Li Ji Chou Nian Zhi (The Great Ming Wan Li Ji Chou Year Made).

Similar examples: Im Zeichen des Drachen, Von der Schönheit chinesischer Lacke, Hirmer Verlag München – Museum für Lackkunst, Münster/Linden Museum, Stuttgart exhibition 2006/2007 – plate 81.

East Asian Lacquer, The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991 – no. 36.