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| 119 A fine and rare carved three-colour lacquer dish (ticai ) Wanli period, dated 1589 Diameter: 10 B in, 25.8 cm carved with a medallion containing peony and chrysanthemum emerging from a fantastic rock, with other flowers either side, on a diamond floral diaper ground, with scattered leaves on a wan diaper below and butterflies and clouds on a fine trellis diaper above. The interior sides are carved with four shaped panels of flowers against a trellis diaper alternating with single, leafy blooms on a floral trellis. The exterior sides are carved with a lotus scroll in red lacquer and with key-fret to the foot. The black lacquer base is incised with an eight-character mark dating the dish to the yichou year of the Wanli period, corresponding to 1589. This decoration is very rare, and possibly unique, on a Wanli dated dish. In Chinese Lacquer, Garner illustrates a related three-colour dish with dragon decoration, dated 1593 and in the collec-tion of the British Museum, as pl. D, and he discusses this group of dated wares on p. 144, where he notes that the earliest recorded date on a Wanli piece is 1585 and the most common is 1595. For a box dated 1595 in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum, see Hu, Chinese Lacquer, no. 22. A rectangular tray with a dragon motif, also dated 1589, is illustrated in Fong and Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, pl. 266, p. 461. Yoshikawa illustrates a cabinet with a similar design as no. 87, p. 76, in Carved Lacquer. For other lacquer with similar decoration, see a box in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, no. 250; and a dish in Brandt, Chinesische Lackarbeiten, no. 63, pp. 114–15. |