Rectangular tray with plum branch design
Mount: 8 in × 2 1/2 in × 2 in (20.3 cm × 6.4 cm × 5.1 cm)
The plum in moonlight
The design on this Chinese lacquer tray echoes the theme of a famous poem by Su Shi (Chinese, 1037– 1101). It presents the cool radiance of a flowering plum branch as it twists under a crescent moon.
In Flowering-Plum village at the foot of Luofu Mountain,
The flowering plums’ bones are of jade and snow, and their souls of ice.
In their multitude the blossoms seem like moonlight hanging from the trees,
In their brightness they are alone with Orion on the horizon at dusk.
The association of plum and moon was so attractive to Chinese scholars during Su Shi’s time that it became a popular motif in poetry, paintings, and eventually the decorative arts. The plum-and-moon motif also came to influence like-minded scholars and artists in Korea and Japan.
(Label from exhibition Flower Power)
