A MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INLAID LACQUER OCTAGONAL 'MAGPIE AND PRUNUS' TRAY YUAN – EARLY MING DYNASTY |

of octagonal form, with shallow rounded sides rising from a slightly recessed base to a flat everted rim, all raised on a high straight foot of corresponding form, the interior decorated with gnarled branches bearing prunus buds and blooms of varying sizes, further rendered with two magpies perched atop a branch with a crescent moon in the distance, each of the birds portrayed with dense plumage, the cavetto divided into eight trapezoidal cartouches, each with cusped corners and enclosing a floral spray below a floral band encircling the rim, each rounded side of the exterior further detailed with a floral bloom wreathed by leafy stems, all atop eight rectangular panels of floral diaper skirting the octagonal high foot, all decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay against the dark brownish-black lacquer body 

Sotheby's Paris, 18th December 2009, lot 134.

Another closely related dish of this form and related design from the Florence and Herbert Irving collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was included in the exhibition East Asian Lacquer. The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, cat. no. 55.