A blue and white 'Dragon' box and cover, Wanli mark and period. Estimation 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of rectangular form with indented corners resting on a short foot, the domed cover painted in underglaze blue with a pair of confronting five-clawed dragons contesting a 'flaming pearl' amid cloud swirls and above foaming waves crashing against rockwork, the sides painted with luxuriant lotus scrolls above a keyfret band, the lower portion similarly decorated with meandering leafy lotus scrolls below a keyfret border, six-character mark within a double rectangle (2). Length 9 1/2  in., 24 cm

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9th October 2007, lot 1561. 

Note: A similar, but slightly smaller box with two dragons in a quatrefoil panel on a cash-diaper ground is in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, and is illustrated in the Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Dragon-motif Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, cat.no. 37.  Another Wanli mark and period 'dragon' box and cover from the Falk Collection was sold at Christie's New York, 20th September 2001, lot 144 and was later resold in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1675. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 15 sept. 2015