Page 13 - Marchant 2013 Exhibition

五 5. A Chinese porcelain blue and white circular box and cover of generous domed form painted on the cover with two monkeys in

a raised circular panel, one climbing a fruiting peach tree and poking a honeycomb with a stick, bees buzzing around, while the
青 other monkey tries to catch the honey, a deer and stag in the foreground and a pair of birds in flight above rockwork and plants
花 beneath ruyi-head clouds and the moon, all encircled by four lozenge-shaped reserves, each with a bird perched on a different
爵
祿 flowering branch, on a diaper ground above a keyfret band, the box base with matching keyfret band with six galloping horses
封 above crested waves.
侯 8 ¾ inches 22.3 cm diameter.

圖 Wanli, 1573-1619.

蓋

盒 • Formerly in the Takayanagi collection, Japan, with old Japanese wood box.

• A similar porcelain box and cover is Illustrated in Blue and white Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II) The Complete Collection of

明 Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing, pl. 180, p. 193; another is illustrated by Jan Fontein in The World’s Great Collections
萬 Oriental Ceramics, vol. 10, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, monochrome pl. 236.
曆 • Deer, lu, bird, que, monkey, hou and bees, feng, form the rebus, juelu feng hou ‘May you receive high rank and emolument’.

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