China, 15^th-16^th century. The square tray with rounded corners and slightly convex sides, supported on four bracket feet. The interior intricately carved in various levels of relief revealing multiple layers of red and ochre lacquer with a lobed panel enclosing a vivid scene of four tribute bearers of different origins, their sumptuous robes, elaborate headdresses, and fine facial features meticulously incised.

The tribute bearers are carrying a gnarled log, a scholar’s rock, a rooster, and a rhinoceros horn, standing beneath an old pine tree amid lingzhi sprouts and swirling clouds. The floor is ornately rendered in a lozenge diaper with wan emblems at the center, the background with similarly detailed hexagonal-floral diaper.

Inscriptions: Each of the four corners depict Chinese archaistic characters for Buddhist emblems with the lower and upper left-hand corners representing the victory banner and the conch, while the upper and lower right-hand corners depict the parasol and fish. The right-hand edge inscribed with the character ‘Yue’ 嶽, and the left-hand edge with an archaistic symbol.

Provenance: English trade, acquired from an estate in Somerset, United Kingdom.
Condition: Very good condition with expected old wear and manufacturing irregularities, slight warping, very few minor age cracks, light scratches, minute nicks. Absolutely original condition with no repairs or touchups of any kind, which seems rather rare for Ming dynasty lacquer wares, but appears not to be unusual of this specific group of 15^th-16^th century two-color lacquers (see comparisons below in similar condition).

Weight: 416 g
Dimensions: 27.5 x 27.5 cm

The central panel enclosed by a cloud border and leafy floral scroll, the rim with a band of key-fret. The exterior similarly decorated with archaistic stylized confronted dragons above a further key-fret band.

Two tributaries wear a feathered headdress with long robes tied at the waist and animal-skin shoes. Their faces are stippled with thin beards. Their statures are corpulent, while the other two tributaries are thin. The third tribute bearer wears a layered cap over his full, curling hair. His shirt is superbly incised with phoenix decorations, his lower garment secured at the waist by a complex sash. The fourth tribute bearer, holding a scholar’s rock with five peaks, has a curly beard and thick hair. He wears a simple robe and slightly slouches beneath the weight of his tribute.

Depictions of foreigners during the Ming dynasty were typically rendered in caricature. However, these tributaries are rendered more realistically than normally seen, and their modeling highlights their ethnic distinctions without denigration. In a similar fashion, a Ming dynasty scroll painting depicts two Indian tribute bearers with similar gifts for a group of four Luohan, dated to the 15^th century, sold at Sotheby’s London, 18 May 1983, lot 266 and now in the British Museum, registration number 1983,0705,0.2. One with darker skin and curly hair carries a rhinoceros horn while the other holds a scholar’s rock, exactly as found in the present lot.

Expert’s note: Superbly carved with high precision and profound inspiration, this lacquer tray showcases two distinct and fascinating techniques which allow it to be dated to the early to mid-Ming dynasty, most likely between the reigns of the Emperors Yongle (1402-1424) and Jiajing (1521-1567) . Firstly, the use of colors is exceptionally vivid with the layers of cinnabar-red and ochre-yellow applied so thinly that they appear to flow into each other. For a lacquer box and cover exhibiting a similar use of colors, from the Baoyizhai Collection, see Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2014, lot 3212 (note also the very good condition similar to the present lot with only few minute age cracks). Secondly, the plain ground of the archaistic characters and floral decoration surrounding the central panel is not only characteristic of the Ming dynasty but striking in how the deeply carved negative space balances the dense composition to make it seem less crowded. For a similar example of this use of negative space, see a Ming dynasty lacquer tray at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2007, lot 1636. Such grounds were typically of an ochre-yellow color during the early Ming dynasty, and after the Yongle period they would often be cinnabar-red like in the present lot. Plain grounds vanished completely by the Qing dynasty, when all surfaces would be carved with a variety of diapered grounds.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related square cinnabar lacquer tray decorated with figures in a garden, 19.9 x 19.9 cm, dated to the 16^th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2019.193.5.

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