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Lot Essay
The design featuring dragons on the exteriors and prunus on the interior of the cover, is highly unusual and only very few examples are known. The combination of ferocious five-clawed dragons, the ultimate symbol of Imperial authority, with the literary and poetic theme of prunus tree under a crescent moon, creates an interesting contrast but also befits its use as a stationery box for the imperial household.
A Wanli-marked box of almost identical design and shape was sold at Christie’s London, 16 June 1986, lot 75. Compare also to a smaller Wanli wucai box of similar shape, also on a stepped base, decorated on the exterior of the cover with figures in landscape, and on the interior with a single prunus tree, from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 39; and another Wanli wucai box decorated with dragons in bracket-lobed medallions on the cover, and on both sides of the box with flowers and bamboo, from the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum Collection, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14 – Ming, Tokyo, 1976, no. 207.
A Wanli-marked box of almost identical design and shape was sold at Christie’s London, 16 June 1986, lot 75. Compare also to a smaller Wanli wucai box of similar shape, also on a stepped base, decorated on the exterior of the cover with figures in landscape, and on the interior with a single prunus tree, from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 39; and another Wanli wucai box decorated with dragons in bracket-lobed medallions on the cover, and on both sides of the box with flowers and bamboo, from the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum Collection, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14 – Ming, Tokyo, 1976, no. 207.