A Painted Lacquer Circular Dish Western Han Dynasty

of circular form with shallow rounded sides rising from a flat base to a shallow well and a thick flanged rim, lacquered overall in contrasting brownish-black and red lacquers, the interior with a central medallion picked out with red scrolls, below a wide band of red lacquer bearing a single character tian painted in black, and five red ‘IB’ motifs evenly scattered on two black borders encircling the interior rim, the exterior lacquered in brownish-black and further inscribed with four ‘IB’or ‘B’motifs, the rim picked out with red dots between single lines and the outer rim with sections of four thin vertical lines alternating with a single short horizontal stroke

Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 6.

This lacquer dish is remarkably well preserved. It is warped and one section of the rim is wrinkled due to exposure to temperature and humidity changes but the dish retains most of its original shape and decoration. The fragile lacquer surface has been stabilized to prevent further flaking or lost of details and there is black relacquering on the wrinkled section on the rim. There are light scratches on the interior surface and a 2 by 0.8 cm indentation to the lacquer on the underside.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Peter Lam in Layered Beauty, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 28, explains the decoration found on this elegant dish as the ‘IB’ or ‘B’ design, commonly found on Qin and Western Han lacquer wares, such as 'ear cups', beakers, dishes and bottles, that were buried in Yunmeng and Jiangling in Hubei province and in the Mawangdui tombs in Changsha, Hunan province. He further notes that according to a recent research, this type of decoration is considered to depict a highly stylized and simplified double-bird head, a motif that was popular during the Qin and Western Han periods in the former Chu territories in Hubei and Hunan provinces. This dish is special for its large size and well preserved condition. Vessels of this type were made in various sizes and decoration, there are no two that appear to be the same.

For related examples, see a dish of closely related size but of different decoration, from the Fuller Memorial Collection and now in the Seattle Art Museum, illustrated in Michael Knight, East Asian Lacquers, Seattle, 1992, pl. 2; a smaller dish, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, published in George Kuwayama, Far Eastern Lacquer, Los Angeles, 1982, pl. 3, where on p. 55, it is noted that lacquers excavated from Tomb 1 at Mawangdui, dated to the period between 174 and 145 B.C. provide close stylistic analogies. Another smaller dish of this form but different decoration is published in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, vol. 3, Fuzhou, 1998, pl. 7, from the Hubei Provincial Museum; and two further examples, both of smaller dimensions, were included in the exhibition Lacquerware from the Warring States to the Han Periods Excavated in Hubei Province, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, cat. nos. 66A-B. For an example sold at auction, see a painted black lacquer dish of this type sold in our London rooms, 6^th December 1994, lot 16.