A superbly carved cinnabar lacquer 'gardenia' circular tray Yuan Dynasty

with shallow rounded sides resting on a wide short foot, finely carved through the rich red lacquer, the interior with large gardenia blooms on leafy and slender budding stems, the fleshy leaves gently incised with delicate lines to depict the veining, the details picked out in varying levels of relief to give a three-dimensional effect, the exterior carved with a scrolling meander of lingzhi fungus, the base lacquered black  

The present tray carved in this mature Yuan style, where the design is beautifully laid out and the carving highly accomplished, developed from much simpler Song prototypes. To follow the development, it is interesting to compare examples of Song dynasty lacquerware with flower designs included in the exhibition The Colours and Forms of Song and Yuan China: Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2004, cat.nos. 94, 97 and 98, and a more direct example of a tray carved with luscious leaves, flowers and bamboo, similarly attributed to the Yuan period, cat.no. 95.

See also a 14^th century cinnabar lacquer dish carved in the same style with blooming flowers and large curling leaves, formerly in the collections of Professor E. Balla and Dr. W. Balla  and later in the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in our London rooms, 12^th December 1978, lot 251 and again, 12^th December 1989, lot 41.

The Yuan carving style influenced early Ming lacquer designs; see a Yongle dish carved with stems, leaves and overlapping flowers, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Ancient Chinese Lacquerware, Beijing, 1987, pl. 50.