WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details

A BLUE AND WHITE SQUARE BOX AND COVER
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
The gently domed cover is well painted in bright tones of cobalt blue with a central panel containing a scholar’s rock flanked by sprays of peony and chrysanthemum on either side, above shaped cartouches alternately enclosing flowers on the sides against a ground of floral sprays at the canted corners, repeated on the sides of the box raised on a straight foot of conforming shape.
5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) square, Japanese wood box

Provenance

A Japanese family collection
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 1039

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Lot Essay

Boxes of square or rectangular shape with canted corners were popular during the Jiajing and Wanli periods. For example, see a Wanli-marked rectangular box and cover with lotus scrolls in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 197, no. 184; a Jiajing-marked square box and cover of similar design, sold at Christie’s London, 5 December 1994, lot 195; and a Wanli-marked square box and cover with birds in the central panel, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1427.

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