A RARE MING WUCAI HEXAFOIL 'CATS' BOX AND COVER

Details

A RARE MING WUCAI HEXAFOIL 'CATS' BOX AND COVER
ENCIRCLED WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

Decorated in underglaze-blue and finely enamelled on the bracket lobed sides, each with a large cat standing on a jardinere, positioned behind a screen on a promontory with prowling cats, each panel alternating with pine tree and a further cat clambering on bamboo, all below a band of flowering scroll at the mouth rim, the fitted cover correspondingly fluted around the rim, the top moulded with raised S-shaped veins radiating from a domed finial surmounted by an agate bead and held in place by a floral metal mount, the base glazed white with reign mark in underglaze-blue (rim hairline, agate bead a replacement)
5 7/8 in. (15 cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

An identical wucai fluted box and cover in the British Museum collection is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha series, vol. 5, no. 204.

For related examples of multi-lobed boxes and covers, cf. one with figures in landscape in the Idemitsu Art Gallery, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenzhu, vol. 14, pl. 263; and another with ascending and descending dragons in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha series, vol. 6, no. 174.

(US$90,000-120,000)

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