Lot 1173. A rare blue and white rectangular pen tray, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1573-1619); 12¼ in. (31.1 cm.) long. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 62,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012

The tray is sturdily potted with low sides flaring from the thick rectangular foot to the everted rim with indented corners. The interior is divided into two compartments by a three-peaked pen rest. The bottom of the longer compartment has molded decoration of a pair of confronted dragons contesting a flaming pearl amidst scrolling clouds above a rocky peak, below a pair of dragons chasing flaming pearls painted on the sides. The smaller, upper compartment, is painted with a single front-facing dragon encircling a flaming pearl amidst and below clouds. Two pairs of dragons, at similar pursuit, are on the sides of the exterior above a narrow band of key fret on the foot, wood stand.

Provenance: Deaccessioned from the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1970s. 

Note: It appears that blue and white pen trays, with relief-molded decoration, are quite rare. A Wanli-marked pen tray painted in underglaze blue with a dragon and phoenix, rather than the pair of molded dragons, in the main compartment, is illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, no. 709. Pen trays with relief-molded dragons, similar to those on the present tray, are more commonly found decorated in a wucai palette, such as the example from the Hirota Collection, now in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections, Tokyo, vol. 1, 1982, no. 76, and again by D. Lion-Goldschmidt in Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, p. 213, pl. 230. Anotherwucai example, in the Percival David Foundation, is illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr in Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, London, 1994, no. 22. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I. 13 - 14 September 2012, New York, Rockefeller Plaza