.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Boxes of this type are quite rare. A box and cover with similar figures in the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 748, and the pair to the present example was sold in London, 9 December 1985, lot 145.
Compare, also, two examples of this form in wucai enamels decorated with dragons: one from the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, vol. 21, Kyoto, 1981, no. 41; the other, lacking its cover, illustrated by S. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1992, pl. 85, now in the Metropolitan Museum.
A covered box of the same form entirely decorated in underglaze blue with dragons striding above rockwork, from the C.P. Lin Collection, was included in the exhibition, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, Percival David Foundation, London, 1992, no. 90.
Similarly lively figures with elaborate headgear appear on a Jiajing wucai square box in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 38, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 16.
Compare, also, two examples of this form in wucai enamels decorated with dragons: one from the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, vol. 21, Kyoto, 1981, no. 41; the other, lacking its cover, illustrated by S. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1992, pl. 85, now in the Metropolitan Museum.
A covered box of the same form entirely decorated in underglaze blue with dragons striding above rockwork, from the C.P. Lin Collection, was included in the exhibition, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, Percival David Foundation, London, 1992, no. 90.
Similarly lively figures with elaborate headgear appear on a Jiajing wucai square box in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 38, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 16.