Carved cinnabar lacquer wareChina, Xuan de period(1426-1435), Ming DynastyDimensions: Length 30.5 cm Width 9 cm Height 4.7cmWeight: 730 gramsA red lacquer food tray with vines stemming from wood on the outer side. On the ground we can see a landscape of hills, rocks and the ocean. The sky is filled with clouds. Two mystical dragons are frolicking in the sky around a pearl, a reference to a popular folklore story about a boy providing for this sickish mother in drought times. He manages to find a secret place with lush grass and eventually, a beautiful pearl. It turns out to be magical and doubles the amount of anything it grazes. They start sharing their food with others and word eventually gets around. Greedy people (sometimes the emperor's soldiers) force them to hand in the pearl and the boy swallows it in his desperation. His throat and body start burning like fire and he runs to the little water left in the river to drink it. Upon his mother running up to him, she finds a dragon soaring up to the sky, hence protecting the land.