Qiangjin, a technique popular in China during the Ming dynasty and in Japan during the Muromachi period, literally translates to “etched gold.” The design is first incised onto the lacquerware using either needles or knives (needles being more commonly used by Chinese artisans). Gold paint, foil or powder is then applied into the carved grooves, making the pattern visible against the lacquer surface. This technique lends the ornament a refined and elegant quality.
On both sutra covers in the present lot, one side is decorated with a flaming cintamani emblem set on a lotus throne, with radiating rays forming a halo. The reverse features inscriptions in Chinese and Tibetan within a large lotus-petal cartouche, listing the sutras contained within.
A similar set of covers, formerly in the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection and dated to circa 1410, is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (J.C.Y. Watt and B.B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, pp. 116 & 117). The authors note that these lacquered covers provide the earliest examples of Ming-style qiangjin work.
More recently, a pair of qiangjin gilt-decorated red-lacquered sutra covers from the Yongle period sold at Christie’s New York on 23-24 March 2023, lot 1212, for $69,300.