Page 81 - CHRISTIE'S Marchant Nine Decades of Chinese Art 09/14/17

736 A BLUE AND WHITE CUSHION-FORM 藝臻期頤-MARCHANT珍藏中國藝術品
BOX AND COVER
Two Wanli mark-and-period rectangular boxes and covers
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one decorated with
THE PERIOD (1573-1619) boys at play on the cover and dragons on the sides, the other
with dragons in the center of the cover and peach trees on
The box and cover are of square form with canted corners. the sides, are illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming
The cover is decorated with a fve-clawed dragon holding a Dynasty Book VI, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 42-5, pls. 7 and 8
faming pearl above its head amidst clouds and fames, and respectively.
within a border of two striding dragons separated by foaming
waves and rocks above a band of key fret at the rim. The box 明萬曆 青花雲龍捧珠紋倭角方盒
is decorated en suite with two dragons beneath a key-fret band 六字楷書款
below the rim.
6¿ in. (15.5 cm.) wide (mark)

$30,000-40,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Sweden, before 1948.

A similar Wanli-marked box and cover is illustrated by J.
Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London,
2015, pp. 323-24, no. 11:129, where the author notes that
such boxes were probably used as a container for a gift of
sweetmeats.

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