Page 48 - Fine Imperial Porcelain at Sothebys Hong Kong April 3 2019

Painted in bright and vibrant enamels with an unusual motif
of lotus and conch shells, this box is remarkable for its
pierced cover, which would have required considerable skill
when glazing and firing. A closely related box is illustrated in
Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain],
Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-102; and another was sold in our
London rooms, 3rd April 1979, lot 144. A further box of
this design but painted predominantly in green and yellow
enamels, from the R.F.A. Riesco collection, was included in
the exhibition Mostra D’Arte Cinese, Palazzo Ducale, Venice,
1954, cat. no. 722.
Boxes of type are also known painted in underglaze blue;
a box is illustrated in Sekai tōji zenshū/ Ceramic Art of the
World, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 220; and three were sold in
our London rooms, the first from the collections of R.F.A.
Riesco and the Toguri Museum of Art, 23rd June 1970,
lot 63, and again, 9th April 2004, lot 39, the second, 11th
December 1984, lot 341, and the third, 9th December 1986,
lot 190.

46 SOTHEBY ’S FINE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN