WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

This sturdily potted and boldly painted wucai box demonstrates the exuberance of color and design seen among imperial polychrome porcelains in the Wanli reign. A very similar Wanli mark and period wucai box and cover in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 84, no. 324. See, also, a Wanli mark and period wucai box and cover in the collection of the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, with a restored knob on the cover, illustrated in Nezu Bijutsukan zōhinsen: kōgei hen (Catalogue of Selected Masterpieces from the Nezu Collections: Decorative Art), Tokyo, 2001, p. 87, no. 91. A square example with variation to the design, showing children at play, from the Baofang Pavilion of Imperial Ceramics and the Manno Art Museum, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 2816.

For another Wanli-marked box and cover of this type decorated in underglaze-blue in the Musée Guimet, Paris, see M. Paul-David and A. Le Bonheur in The World’s Great Collections: Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 7, Musée Guimet, Tokyo, 1975, pl. 84, from the Grandidier Collection.