FROM THE JINGGUANTANG COLLECTION
A RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE SQUARE BOX AND A COVER

Details
A RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE SQUARE BOX AND A COVER
LONGQING SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD

Well painted in vibrant purplish-blue tones on each side with a lotus meander with scrolling leaves and tendrils and a central flower-head above a band of vines at the base, the cover with a roundel pierced in the centre with a coin emblem encircled by two painted five-clawed dragons in mutual pursuit, the corners with clouds within a single line border (glaze frits to corners, hairline above foot)
4 1/2 in. (11.5 cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

A Longqing-marked box of this pattern from the H.R. Norton and K.R. Malcolm Collections, was exhibited at the London Oriental Ceramic Society, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 1953, Catalogue, no. 172.

Compare also to a Longqing-marked square box with four compartments to the interior, painted with dragon roundels in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wang Qing-Zheng, op. cit., p. 105, no. 99; and a box painted with striding dragons included in Christie's special exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, London, 1993, Catalogue, no. 19.

Wanli-marked boxes of this form are more common. Compare the example with a dragon design from the Grandidier Collection in Musee Guimet, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kodansha Series, vol. 7, pl. 84 and the example from Bristol City Art Gallery illustrated by Joseph, Ming Porcelains, Their Origin and Development, p. 68, fig. 88.

(US$26,000-32,000)

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