Lot 286. A rare wucai 'Garden' circular box and cover, Wanli mark and period (1573-1620). Diameter 9 5/8  in., 24.5 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Lot sold 37,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of rounded form, thickly potted, the domed cover slightly raised and painted with a central medallion painted in underglaze blue, yellow, red, green and black enamel with a pair of long-tailed birds perched on the branches of a tall willow tree, with two butterflies hovering in flight above lilies and asters growing among rocks, all within double line borders, the sides of the box and cover decorated sprays of peach, pomegranate, lychee, grape, vine and flowers, with lozenge bands at the rim, the base inscribed with the six-character reign mark within a double ring in underglaze blue (2). 

Note: The charming wucai design on the present lot is adapted from a Chenghua period doucai pattern, as can be seen on an excavated and unfinished doucai fragmentary box and cover, illustrated in Imperial Porcelain: Recent Discoveries of Jingdezhen Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1995, cat. no. 114. 

A small number of Wanli period wucai boxes and covers of this design appear to be known. Two examples are illustrated in C.M. Kauffmann, ‘Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Manchester City Art Galleries’, Oriental Art, New Series, vol. V, no. 3, Autumn 1959, pp. 120-22, pl. 3; two others were sold in our London rooms, 17th December 1980, lot 632, from the R. Wistrand collection, and 7th December 1993, lot 236; a further example, formerly in the Wingfield Digby and Meiyintang collections was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 48.  

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