YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH-14TH CENTURY

The theme of flowering plum blossoms was a popular motif in the Song and Yuan dynasties and can be found in lacquer and other media. A mother-of-pearl-inlaid black lacquer dish of octagonal form decorated with blossoming plum branches in a similar style, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by J. Watt and B. Ford in East Asian Lacquer, The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1991, pp. 126-128, no. 55. See, also, a Song-Yuan dynasty black lacquer table screen similarly decorated with mother-of-pearl-inlaid blossoming plum branches, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: Lacquer Ware), Taipei, 1987, p. 51, no. 49.

The lyrical depiction of prunus blossoms beneath a crescent moon is also found on contemporary ceramics, such as the Baishe teabowl in this catalogue, lot 77, and a Longquan celadon carved conical bowl, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty, sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2007, lot 277.