A pair of 'qiangjin' lacquer sutra covers, Ming dynasty, Yongle period | 明永樂　朱漆戧金八吉祥《大般若經第三卷》夾經板一副　

Hirano Kotoken.

Chugoku Urushi Kogei ten [Exhibition of Chinese lacquers], Hirano Kotoken, Osaka, 1991, cat. nos 1 (top) and 9 (bottom).

These exquisite sutra covers were made for the 3rd volume of the Sutra of Great Wisdom, as may be seen from the title engraved on the back of the top cover in both Tibetan and Chinese writings within a panel of lotus petal motif. 

Peter Lam in Layered Beauty, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 54, notes that it is recorded in the Ming shi (Dynastic History of the Ming) that two sets of Bkah-hgyur were bestowed sequentially by the Yongle emperor to two Buddhist masters from Tibet in 1413 and 1416 respectively. The sutras of both masters, now preserved at the Potala Palace and the Sera Monastery in Lhasa, are divided into 108 volumes bound by sutra covers like the present set, which was possibly made in the same workshop and belongs to one of the 108 volumes.

For a closely comparable example see two sutra covers, similarly attributed to the Yongle period, illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, Fuzhou, 1995, pl. 29; and two further examples, attributed to circa 1410, are published in James C.Y. Watt and Barbara Brennan Ford, East Asian Lacquer, New York, 1991, pl. 49, from the Florence and Herbert Irving collection and now on loan in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. See also a set from the Baoyizhai Collection, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 38.

來源

平野古陶軒

展覽

《中国漆工藝展》，平野古陶軒，大阪，1991年，編號1（上）及9（下）

此組精湛的經板為《大般若經》第三冊特製，上封面背面以蓮瓣紋開光，內鐫藏漢雙語經名可為佐證。  

香港學者林業強在《疊彩：中國漆器》（2010年，頁54）中引《明史》記載，永樂皇帝曾於1413年與1416年先後賜贈兩套《甘珠爾》予西藏高僧。現存拉薩布達拉宮與色拉寺的這兩套經典，皆分裝為一百零八函，其經板形制與本品相類。本品當屬同期御製一百零八函之一，或出自同一作坊。  

可資比較例子參見： 永樂款近例兩件，載於《中國漆器全集》，福州，1995年，圖版29； 約1410年製經板兩例，刊於屈志仁與芭芭拉·福特，《東亞漆藝》，紐約，1991年，圖版49，屬 Florence 及 Herbert Irving 伉儷舊藏，現寄展於紐約大都會藝術博物館。另見抱一齋收藏一例，香港蘇富比2014年4月8日見售，編號38。