Large case with black lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl cloud and dragon patterns

[Black lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl cloud and dragon patterns]

The black lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl cloud and dragon patterns is 87 cm high, 197 cm long and 53 cm wide
The flat head style with four feet retracted is a popular style in the Ming Dynasty. The whole body is painted with black lacquer and inlaid with mother-of-pearl cloud and dragon patterns. The surface of the table is inlaid with five flying dragons, winding in the clouds, and the rest of the table is decorated with dragon and fireball patterns, which are finely inlaid. The bottom of the case is inlaid with mother-of-pearl inlaid with six characters of “Ming Dynasty Wanli Year System”
The inlaid mother-of-pearl lacquerware is made from the parts with the best natural color and luster of various seashells, which are peeled and polished in layers and then inlaid on the lacquerware as decoration. Yang Ming, a famous painter of the Ming Dynasty, noted in “Xiu Shi Lu” that “the shell is thicker in the ancient times, but thinner in the present”. The “ancient” here refers to things before the Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it became a fashion to use thick mother-of-pearl inlay furniture and other large objects. Because the color of thick mother-of-pearl changes simply, it is appropriate to inlay simple and bright patterns, which has the characteristics of rough and free. This case is the representative work of hard mother-of-pearl lacquerware of the Ming Dynasty.

黑漆嵌螺钿云龙纹大案之云龙纹黑漆嵌螺钿云龙纹大案款识