A rare carved cinnabar lacquer 'chilong' dish, Song - Yuan dynasty | 宋至元 剔紅雙螭穿靈芝紋盤

A Japanese private collection.

The style and arrangement of the dragons on the present dish are closely related to a select group of carved lacquer wares from the late Song to Yuan dynasty. A highly comparable treatment of the chilong can be seen on an 13th/14th-century large carved cinnabar lacquer yellow-ground ‘chilong’ box and cover, sold at Bonhams London, 6 November 2025, lot 108. Further closely related examples include a Southern Song black lacquer box depicting a pair of similar dragons, one clasping a lingzhi sprig, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (acc. no. B77M12.a-.b); and a Southern Song carved black and red lacquer box with two chilong in the Hayashibara Art Museum, Okayama, illustrated in So Gen no bi: denra no shikki o chushin ni, Tokyo, 2004, no. 85.

Other notable lacquer comparisons include a box bearing a 'Yang Mao' signature with three chilong from the Ryogen-in collection in Kyoto; a freer, more abstract version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 2015.500.16); and a Yuan dynasty dish illustrated in The Creation of Natural Immensity and Grandeur: The Yang Ming Shan Fang Collection, Beijing, 2020, no. 8. A larger Yuan dynasty box with three confronted dragons amid long stems of lingzhi was also included in the exhibition Chinese Art under the Mongols, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, pl. 293.

This distinctive style of dragon was a shared decorative vocabulary across different mediums during the Song and Yuan periods. Similar chilong can be found on contemporaneous ceramics, such as a Northern Song Dingyao white-glazed brush washer in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession. no. GU00143080), and on Longquan celadon-glazed dishes featuring biscuit dragons in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, see S.Lee and W.K.Ho, Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Cleveland, 1968, pls.80 and 81.

來源

日本私人收藏

此盤上螭龍的造型與佈局與宋末至元代的一組掉漆風格非常類似。參看一件十三/十四世紀 剔红螭龍雲紋蓋盒，該盒售於倫敦邦瀚斯2025年11月6日，拍品編號108。另外可參考之例包括：舊金山亞洲藝術博物館蓄一件南宋黑漆雙螭紋盒（館藏編號 B77M12.a-.b），其螭龍口銜靈芝，姿態如出一轍；以及岡山林原美術館藏一件南宋剔黑紅漆雙螭盒，錄於《宋元の美：伝来の漆器を中心に》，東京，2004年，編號85

另可資參考京都靈源院藏一件署「楊茂」款之三螭紋剔紅盒；紐約大都會藝術博物館藏龍紋風格更為奔放一例（館藏編號 2015.500.16）；以及陽明山房藏一件元代剔紅螭龍靈芝盤，見《陽明山房藏宋元明清雕漆選》，北京，2020年，編號8。 克里夫蘭美術館亦有一件飾有三龍戲靈芝的元代大盒可資比較，見《Chinese Art under the Mongols》，1968年，圖版293。

此種獨特的螭龍造型在宋元時期的不同材質藝術品中均有體現。同時代的瓷器上亦可見類似的螭龍紋飾，如北京故宮博物院清宮舊藏之北宋定窯白釉螭龍洗（館藏編號：故00143080），以及費城藝術博物館所藏飾有素燒螭龍的龍泉窰青瓷盤，見 S. Lee 與 W.K. Ho 編，《Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)》，克里夫蘭，1968年，圖版80及81。