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

The exterior of this rare cup is decorated with two pairs of confronting dragons leaping above rocks and waves, and each holding a pearl enclosing one of the four characters wanshou qitian, forming the phrase ‘wishing you to live ten thousand years of life as long as the heaven’.

A very similar Wanli cup (10.3 cm. across) from the Mineo Hata collection was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 October 2024, lot 2035. A slightly smaller example (9.6 cm.) is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 967.