RARE ET IMPORTANT PLAT EN LAQUE VERTE ET ROUGE SCULPTEE
- CHINE, DYNASTIE YUAN, XIVEME SIECLE

CHINE, DYNASTIE YUAN, XIVEME SIECLE

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€80,000 - €100,000
• ($117,161 - $146,451)

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Sale 5580
Art d'Asie
21 December 2009
Paris

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RARE ET IMPORTANT PLAT EN LAQUE VERTE ET ROUGE SCULPTEE
CHINE, DYNASTIE YUAN, XIVEME SIECLE
De forme polylobée, la laque verte très finement sculptée, au centre d'un médaillon sur fond de laque rouge incisée de fines ondulations, représentant un couple d'oiseaux, leur plumage délicatement incisé, l'un posé près d'un rocher, l'autre perché sur un branchage feuillagé de pivoines, d'autres rameaux terminés par des boutons ou des fleurs épanouies, la bordure agrémentée de branches de feuilles, pivoines, fleurs de cerisiers et lys (?) sur fond ocre, le revers orné de volutes dans le style tixi ; fêles et petites retouches
Largeur: 32,1 cm. (12 5/8 in.)

" f " : In addition to the regular Buyer's Premium, a commission of 5.5% (i.e. 6.578% inclusive of V. A. T.) will be charged to the Buyer. It will be refunded to the Buyer upon proof of export of the lot outside the European Union within the legal time limit.

From a Japanese private collection

The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China: Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, October 9th - November 7th 2004, pl.88

Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo

The use of green lacquer is particularly rare and makes this dish, which is of superb quality, very exceptional.
See three dishes of comparable form and design, including one in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 15, no. 9 (fig.1). The Palace Museum dish is decorated with a peahen perched on rockwork but in every other aspect is very close to the present example. The rockwork and shaped decorative bands appear to be remarkably similar on both dishes. The Palace Museum example bears a label to the reverse indicating that it was inspected by Emperor Qianlong in the 54th year of his reign. Another, formerly in the Percival David collection, is in the British Museum illustrated by H. Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 49. The British Museum dish depicts a different scene of two ducks and a pair of magpies in tree strewn landscape setting, but again, the treatment remaining decorative bands and features of the rockwork and trees bear a very close resemblance to those found on the other dishes. The third example from the Avery Brundage collection, also decorated with two long-tailed birds, is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by Li He and M. Knight, Power and Glory: Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty, San Francisco, 2008, p. 98, no. 47, where it is attributed to the Hongwu period. It is interesting to note that on all these dishes there is no differentiation between the spatial distances, a feature of Yuan dynasty lacquer carving. By the early Ming dynasty carvers had started using a floral diamond-diaper to indicate land, a series of waves for water, and horizontal lines for sky.

The present dish belongs to a small but distinct group of carved lacquer pieces depicting two birds all of which are denser in their design and less naturalistic than the carving found on the present dish. Although the species of birds and flowers vary from dish to dish, they are invariably decorated with the same compositional layout of a pair of birds in flight against a floral background.
Cf. an example in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, illustrated ibid, p. 13, no. 7. Compare also several examples illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections - Lacquerware, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987; pl. 57 is an example in the Los Angeles County Museum with a peacock and peahen; pl. 59, in the Seattle Art Museum decorated with a pair of finches; pl. 60, in the Detroit Institute of Arts decorated with a pair of cranes; and pl. 61, in the Tokyo National Museum decorated with a pair of pheasants.

A RARE AND IMPORTANT CARVED GREEN AND RED LACQUER LOBED DISH
CHINA, YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

Indian & Southeast Asian Art

• Ancient Art & Antiquities

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