Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 10. (Budapest, 1967)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: A Carved Lacquer Ting with the Mark of Hsüan-te
. OR HORVÁTH A CARVED LACQUER TING WITH THE MARK OF HSÜAN-TE Among the carved red lacquers in our Museum, we have two with the nien-hao of the Ming period, the ting described here for the first time, andja round box with cover from the time of Ch'ia-Ching (1522-1566) 1 . The lacquer ting is a larger cup with two vertical handles and three slightly curved legs (fig. 1). The inside of the cup is lacquered black, on the outside, below a narrow strip of thunder-pattern, we see a large band of "flowers and birds" composition, one pair of birds sitting on a flowering plum branch in the middle (on both sides), surrounded by foliage. One pair of birds are sitting upright. The others are hanging with their heads down. The "flower and bird" motives are carved out of deep brown lacquer, on the top of layers of red lacquer. The whole piece is made this way, brown lacquer covering the red (figs. 2-3). The legs are stretching out from the mouth of a demon, like an oversized tongue, decorated with two strips of thunder-pattern divided by a double line joined at the bottom. The demon-heads with long and thick hair, bulging eyes and flat noses are carved especially carefully giving a very relieflike effect. The handles are carved on both sides with the diaper pattern ("Each element, consists of a small double square enclosing an eight-pointed star". F. Low-Beer) w r hile on the border, we find the thunder-pattern again. Here too, the carving is done deeply and accurately. The bottom was originally black lacquer, later turning into brownishblack. Here in the middle is the nien-hao of four characters : Hsüan-te nien chih slightly incised and filled with gold dust. At the spot where the character te was written, the lacquer is partly damaged (fig. 4). Small chips are occurring on other places too, the one on the handle is pasted on. Height: 15.4 cm. Inventory number 63.26 1. 1-2. (In the course of the last 200 years, a wooden carved lid was added to the piece with a knob of a probably Ming jade : a duck with the head turned back.) This ting is an outstanding specimen and a very remarkable example of the art of lacquer carving. The deep and meticulously executed carving, the plastic modelling of the demon-heads are the proof of its origin from a first class workshop, probably working for the Imperial court. But the ting is so 1 Tibor Horváth, The Art of Asia in the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts in Budapest, 1955. figs. 29-30.
