A RARE MING WUCAI HEXAFOIL 'CATS' BOX AND COVER

細節

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

拍品專文

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)