The theme of 'boys' was popular in southern Song paintings, particularly those with small children at play by the Academy painter, Su Hanchen (active early 12th century). The imagery was especially appropriate in later periods, since it was good augury for the emperor to produce male heirs. Although this was something about which the Jiaqing emperor was particularly concerned, the popularity of this subject continued into the Wanli reign, where ceramic wares are found to be decorated with boys at play.

No other box and cover with this combination of form and pattern appears to have been published, although there are several examples of Wanli-marked vessels painted with the same decorative theme. Cf. the Wanli-marked blue and white dish in the Percival David Foundation featuring boys playing in a garden, included in the joint exhibition Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1994, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 55.

The shape of the present covered box is also very unusual and the most closely related Wanli-marked comparisons are decorated in the wucai palette: the first, a box and cover designed with ascending and descending dragons, sold in our London Rooms, 12 December 1977, lot 153; and the other with floral sprays, sold in these Rooms, 20 March 1990, lot 547.