Lacquer dish carved in tixi technique

A small lacquer dish with upturned sides and recessed base.  The rim is divided into sixteen rounded lobes.  The interior is carved with two tiers of ‘pommel’ scrolls; eight in the outer ring and four to the centre, all arranged around a radiant star shape.  The outside rim is carved with a more simplified pommel design.  The grooves are cut at a diagonal angle, showing the alternating layers of red and black lacquer.  The interior and exterior rim of the dish are highly polished.  The recessed base is plain.

•   As in the square tray (p. 80), the different coloured layers of lacquer used in building up the surface of this small dish are revealed when the grooves are cut at an angle. A comparable, larger tray with three registers of pommel scrolls in the collection of the Los Angles County Museum of Art is given a 15th century date by Kuwayama.   A top of a three-tiered covered box in the collection of Mike Healy has very similar pommel scrolls.1   White dates this box also to the early Ming dynasty, 15th century.2

1. Kuwayama, G. Far Eastern Lacquer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982, no. 19, p. 76
2. White, J.M. Masterpieces of Chinese Lacquer from the Mike Healy Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts, no. 11, pp. 44-5