A RARE CHINESE THREE-COLOURED LACQUER 'DRAGON' TRAY

A RARE CHINESE THREE-COLOURED LACQUER 'DRAGON' TRAY
QIANLONG 1736-95

The square dish decorated to the interior with a panel depicting a stylised shou medallion between two five-clawed dragons among ruyi-clouds above rockwork and cresting waves, the cavetto with four floral panels depicting flowering stems of peony, camelia, chrysanthemum and rose, alternating with cranes to the corners, the exterior decorated with panels depicting the babao among foliate lingzhi scrolls, the corners with medallions enclosing the bagua, all carved through layers of red, green and ochre lacquer against a diaper ground, the base with plain black lacquer, 22cm.

Provenance: an English private collection, Surrey, UK, purchased from Ben Janssens Oriental Art, 14th May 2002; sold on behalf of Parkinson's UK.

The iconography of the shou character being contested by two dragons, or alternatively phoenix, originated on lacquer during the reigns of the emperors Jiajing (1522-1566) and Wanli (1573-1620). This carved decoration features on a Jiajing casket and a Wanli scroll container, both in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, vol.45, p.178, pl.136, and p.222, pl.175. The elements of this decoration are closely related to the Daoist belief system. This is true not only of its main compositional elements such as the two dragons and symbols of yin and yang forces, but also in its smaller decorative elements around them, such as the clouds in the form of lingzhi, with their reference to immortality. The babao, or Eight Precious Things, and the bagua, or Eight Trigrams, are also auspicious symbols closely related to Daoist practices.

The design of the dish offered here emulates these earlier Ming motifs, as was typical of Qianlong production. The decoration is closely related to the Jiajing and Wanli period lacquerware mentioned above, but its shape and composition is also of Ming derivation, as exemplified by a similar square tray with indented corners and upturned edges of Wanli period also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in, op. cit., p.206, pl.163. A closely related tray of Qianlong mark and period can be seen in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors: Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, p.135, pl.136. Another of Qianlong mark and period is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Diaqi (Chinese Lacquer in the Palace Museum), pl.331. A further example of this date from the Edward Krolik collection is illustrated in B St J M Morgan, Carved Lacquer in the Krolik Collection, Oriental Art, vol.11, no.4, fig.7.

清乾隆 剔彩八吉祥雲龍捧壽方盤
來源：英國薩里郡私人收藏，2002年5月14日購於倫敦古董商Ben Janssens Oriental Art。成交金額將全數捐贈英國帕金森基金會。