The top painted with a pheasant standing on a rock surrounded by peonies while the hen stands below, with birds in flight and perched in the tree to the side and lingzhi fungus in the foreground, with vignettes of birds and flowering or fruiting branches on each facet of the domed sides, which are repeated on the sides of the box, with lingzhi sprays around the rims, Japanese wood box .
Exhibited: Japanese private collection.
Note: Comparable boxes, all bearing Jiajing marks, are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum Pusat, Jakarta and a private Japanese collection. Refer to S. Valenstein, Handbook of Chinese Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, rev. ed., 1989, p. 171, no. 167; Abu Ridho, Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 3, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 203; and Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14, 1976, pp. 68-9, pl. 70, respectively.
Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 22 March 2007