Lot 23. A rare blue and white 'dragon and phoenix' brush tray, Mark and period of Wanli (1573-1619); 31.3 cm., 12 3/8 in. Estimate 800,000 - 1,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,160,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's 2012

of long rectangular form with slightly flared sides rising to an everted rim with indented corners, supported on a low foot of conforming shape reinforced by two horizontal bars of clay, the interior divided into two sections by a thin crenulated wall shaped to hold two brushes, painted on either side of the wall with waves, vividly decorated in shades of soft cobalt under a smoky glaze, the larger section with a five-clawed dragon chasing a pearl opposite a long-tailed phoenix among clouds and flames, above steep stylized rocks washed by tumultuous waves, between a dragon striding in pursuit of a pearl opposite a long-tailed phoenix among clouds on the inner walls, the smaller compartment showing an en face dragon within quatrefoil clouds on the flanking sides, the exterior similarly decorated with a phoenix following a dragon striding with outstretched claws in pursuit of a pearl, and quatrefoil clouds set at each end, all above a key-fret border painted around the foot, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double rectangle in underglaze blue.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 709.

Note: A companion tray in the Shanghai Museum was included in the exhibition The Chinese Scholar’s Studio. Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period, Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1987, cat. no. 47, where it is described as a temporary receptacle for wet brushes for painters working with different brushes at the same time. Combinations of dragon and phoenix are rare on such trays, but a very similar tray painted in wucai, also from the Meiyintang collection and illustrated in Krahl, op. cit., no. 710, was sold in these rooms, 4th April, 2012, lot 33. A similar blue-and-white tray painted with a pair of dragons from the T.Y. Chao collection was offered in these rooms 18th November 1986, lot 47; another was sold 17th May 1988, lot 134.