AN EXTREMELY RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER ‘PHOENIX’ LOW TABLE MING DYNASTY, XUANDE PERIOD |

the flat rectangular top with raised ends, supported on a constricted waist above four cabriole legs skirted with a cusped apron, the top exuberantly carved in various levels of relief with a lobed cartouche enclosing a pair of phoenix in flight amidst stylised lotus blooms borne on leafy sprays above rocky mountains, framed at each of the four corners with a further phoenix amidst leafy blooms of the four seasons, the raised ends and sides further decorated with floral blooms amid broad leaves, encircled by a trellis band along the constricted waist, the four legs and apron similarly decorated with further phoenix in flight amid floral blooms below a lappet band, the reverse lacquered in black

Collection of Kenzo Hasegawa (1886-1957), founder of the Kaisendo Museum, c. 1950.
Collection of Kaisendo Museum, Yamagata.

Hirokazu Arakawa, Choshitsu, Bijutsu Zenshu [Carved lacquer], Kyoto, 1974, vol. 8, pl. 76 and p. 163.

The lacquer table is in overall very good condition, with retouching to the tip of one leg and other minor areas of retouching to the borders. There are typical age cracks, especially to 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."

This superbly carved lacquer table, treasured in a Japanese museum collection for over 50 years, is an exceptional example of early Ming lacquer, preserved in extraordinarily good condition. The sensitive, naturalistic rendering of the complex design of phoenix depicted opposing each other in flight, the luxuriance of the interwoven lotus design, and the large size of the piece are of very high quality. The shape of the low table is elegant, supported on four cabriole legs springing from an intricately formed barbed apron. Its production, probably in the official lacquer workshops of the Guoyuan chang in Beijing would have been an extremely ambitious undertaking, and the precision of form and successful finish is a credit to the craftsmen working there.The superb thick lacquer layer assembled for this table from numerous individual coatings was only rarely recreated in later periods. The soft, well-polished finish and the smooth, rounded outlines of the various motifs are also characteristic of the wares created at that time; the exuberance and complexity of the present design, however, are exceptional. The creation of a piece of this scale and quality would have been a highly ambitious undertaking, given the time-consuming process of building up a thick enough layer of lacquer by adding and preparing multiple thin coatings, each of which needs to dry before it can be polished and the next one applied, and finally carving the design into it – a process that can stretch over years.

The meticulous design of phoenixes on the current tray is very closely related to that found on arguably the greatest extant piece of early Ming lacquer - the Xuande mark and period table in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Ming: Fifty Years That Changed China, The British Museum, London, 2014, pp. 106-7, fig. 97 (fig. 1). The precision and carving of the design on the upper surface of the table of a dragon and phoenix soaring amidst a dense ground of lotuses and foliage amidst quatrefoil panels precisely matches that of the phoenixes on the current table, enabling a precise dating of it to the Xuande period. The stylistic elements are so similar – the precise treatment of the feathers, wings and tails of the phoenix, and the depiction of phoenix in reserve on the four corners – that it is likely to have been carved by the same team of artisans. The identical design can also be seen on a Xuande mark and period lacquer tray formerly in the collections of Sir Percival David, Mrs Walter Sedgwick and Edward T. Chow, sold in these rooms, 3rd October 2018, lot 3402, from the Speelman collection (fig. 2).

The phoenix design can also be found on a Xuande period cloisonné basin in the Uldry collection, illustrated in Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989 (German edition, Zurich, 1985), pl. 19, where the authors argue that the birds are differentiated by the treatment of the long tail feathers to distinguish between the male and female bird. They also illustrate, ibid., fig. 55, a stone relief from the ruins of the Mongol capital Dadu, dated to the second half of the 13th century. Carved with two phoenix within a quatrefoil, each with a different long tail plume, the decoration is remarkably similar to both the cloisonné basin and the current lacquer tray. Clearly this imperial Yuan decorative motif was a prototype for the design used in Xuande imperial works of art.

The phoenix emblem was also a regularly used design motif on the highest quality blue and white porcelain produced at the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen in the Xuande period. For a Xuande reign-marked brushwasher painted with two phoenix from the Qing court collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 129.