Lot 8013. A blue and white square box and cover, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1573-1619). 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) square. Estimate HKD 260,000 - HKD 350,000 (USD 33,430 - USD 45,002). Price realised HKD 375,000.  © Christies Images Ltd 2017

The gently domed cover is well painted in bright tones of cobalt blue with a central panel containing a scholar’s rock flanked by sprays of peony and chrysanthemum on either side, above shaped cartouches alternately enclosing flowers on the sides against a ground of floral sprays at the canted corners, repeated on the sides of the box raised on a straight foot of conforming shape, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese family collection
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 1039

Note: Boxes of square or rectangular shape with canted corners were popular during the Jiajing and Wanli periods. For example, see a Wanli-marked rectangular box and cover with lotus scrolls in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 197, no. 184; a Jiajing-marked square box and cover of similar design, sold at Christie’s London, 5 December 1994, lot 195; and a Wanli-marked square box and cover with birds in the central panel, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1427.

A fine late Ming blue and white square box and cover, Wanli six-character mark and of the period (1573-1619). 4 3/4 in. (12 cm.) across0 Sold for 360,000 HKD at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1427. © Christies Images Ltd 2005

Christie's. Important Ming Imperial Works of Art from The Le Cong Tang Collection Evening Sale, 27 November 2017, Hong Kong