Page 191 - J.J. Lally Chinese Art CHRISTIE'S March 23 2023 NYC

(another view)

897 A RARE WUCAI BOX AND COVER 明萬曆ǭՆ彩龍紋方蓋罐ǭ雙圈六字楷書款
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN
A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
The square box is decorated on each side with a five-clawed Ϝ源
法國☆՞Ⅷ藏
dragon writhing amidst clouds above crashing waves, the body
of each dragon coiled around a ‘flaming pearl’. The flat cover 巴黎צ士得
年 月 日
拍品編號
is similarly decorated with a single dragon coiled around the 藍理捷
紐約
編號
Buddhist lion-form finial.
5√ in. (14.9 cm.) high, cloth box This sturdily potted and boldly painted wucai box demonstrates the
exuberance of color and design seen among imperial polychrome
$100,000-150,000
porcelains in the Wanli reign. A very similar Wanli mark and
PROVENANCE: period wucai box and cover in the collection of the Tokyo National
French private collection. Museum is illustrated in Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National
Christie’s Paris, 10 June 2009, lot 125. Museum: Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 84, no. 324. See, also,
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4538. a Wanli mark and period wucai box and cover in the collection
of the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, with a restored knob on the cover,
illustrated in Nezu Bijutsukan zįhinsen: kįgei hen (Catalogue of
Selected Masterpieces from the Nezu Collections: Decorative Art),
Tokyo, 2001, p. 87, no. 91. A square example with variation to
the design, showing children at play, from the Baofang Pavilion
of Imperial Ceramics and the Manno Art Museum, was sold at
Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 2816.

For another Wanli-marked box and cover of this type decorated
(mark) in underglaze-blue in the Musée Guimet, Paris, see M. Paul-
David and A. Le Bonheur in The World’s Great Collections: Oriental
Ceramics, Vol. 8, Musée Guimet, Tokyo, 1975, pl. 84, from the
Grandidier Collection.

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