Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Saucer with two chi dragons
Not on view
This elegant saucer features an unusual design—two sinuous dragons covered with hair rather than scales. Their complex layout amid floral scrolls matches compositions often seen on works from the early Ming period. The saucer also has carving that is distinctively sharp and deep with less polished corners. These elements suggest that the piece is an early example of Yunnan carving, a lacquer school attributed to the Yunnan region of southwest China that developed from the fourteenth to sixteenth century.
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