The composition on the present tray is extremely rare with a wide variety of birds all carved on the same piece; no other comparable examples appear to be published. A possible prototype for this tray may be the black lacquer wares from the Yuan dynasty, decorated with birds and flowers. See, for example, the small square tray with two birds amidst camellia, illustrated by J. Watt and B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer, The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1991, pl. 18; and the larger bracket-lobed charger sold in these Rooms, 29 April 2001, lot 635. In the Yuan examples, the decoration is dense and stylised, comparable to the borders of the present tray, whereas the main view is composed in an unusually natural setting.