YUAN-EARLY MING DYNASTY, 13TH-14TH CENTURY

Chilong of the type seen on this tray are seen on carved lacquer wares as early as the Song dynasty, such as the circular box which is carved through black lacquer to a red ground with two chilong circling each other amidst clouds, and dated to the Southern Song dynasty, illustrated in The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China: Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics, and Metalwares, Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2004, no. 85. This same type of decoration can be seen on another black lacquer circular box from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, illustrated by James C. Y. Watt and Barbara Brennan Ford, in East Asian Lacquer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 62-3, no. 16, where it is dated late Song to Yuan period, late 13th-early 14th century. Similar chilong shown with lingzhi are seen on carved red lacquer wares dated to the early Ming dynasty, such as the circular box in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 45 - Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pp. 40-41, no. 25, which has an inscription dating it to the Yongle period. An oval tray with decoration similar to that of the present oval tray, of two chilong with lingzhi on a wave ground and within a wind-tossed wave border, but with the addition of an outer band of lingzhi scroll below the rim, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Fenglei Quanji, Lacquer Treasures from China: The Ming Dynasty, vol. 5, Fujian, 1995, p. 42, no. 42, where it is dated to the Xuande period. The particular style of the tixi scroll on the exterior of the present oval tray, however, suggests a somewhat earlier, Yuan dynasty date, and relates very well to the tixi scroll seen on the exterior of a floral-lobed, red lacquer dish illustrated by Simon Kwan in Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 148, no. 32, which is dated to the Yuan dynasty.