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

It is very rare to find this popular ‘children at play’ theme rendered in the wucai palette, only one other example of this form and pattern appears to be published, which is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1955, fig. 169. For a similar Wanli wucai box and cover depicting this theme but of hexa-lobed form, see the example in the Musée Guimet, Paris, museum accession number G4984. For other Wanli wucai boxes with figural scenes, compare one of foliate-form in the Baltimore Museum of Art, accession number: BMA 1939-2532-b; one of ten-lobed form in the Idemitsu Museum, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, p. 274, no. 263; and a circular box and cover painted with dancing figures from the Meiyintang Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2011, lot 70, now in the collection of Studio of Measure, was exhibited in No Doubts, Christie’s Shanghai, 2014, see catalogue, no. 30.
The theme is more familiar in underglaze-blue, such as the octagonal box and cover, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot 611; and a dish with children seated around tables in the Percival David Foundation, included in the exhibition Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, 1994, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 31, no. 55.