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A pair of very fine lac burgauté square trays with indented corners, minutely decorated with figures engaged in the making of silk in pavilions and courtyards next to water, with scattered rocks and trees, all within flowerhead borders and with flowerhead bands below the ris.
First quarter 18th century
4 1/8”, 10.5 cm square
Formerly in the collection of George de Menasce and exhibited as no. 345 in the Spink catalogue
of 1972
For a tray of identical size and technique but depicting a different stage of sericulture, see Lam, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, no. 96, pp. 184-5, where it is stated that the scene is taken from the well-known woodblock album Yuzhi gengzhi tu (Imperial Edition of the Pictures of Tilling and Weaving), illustrated by the court painter Jiao Bingzhen (active circa 1689-1726) after the style of a Song version by Lou Shou (1096-1162).
