of rounded form, the domed cover with a slightly raised circular panel, the rims with raised horizontal bands, all supported on a straight foot, painted in deep tones of underglaze blue with details in red, green and yellow enamels, the cover with a central garden scene with two long-tailed parrots perched on the branches of a willow tree, all above pairs of butterflies and insects in flight amidst lilies, asters and other flowers growing among rocks, the sides with sprays of pomegranate, peach, lychees, vines and flowers, the raised rim borders with diaper bands, the base with the six-character reign mark in underglaze blue (2). 

Note: The design on the present box is inspired by a Chenghua period doucai design, the only extant example of which was excavated at the waste heaps of the Ming imperial site at Jingdezheng, having been destroyed before the enamels were added, and included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain: Recent Discoveries of Jingdezhen Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1995, cat. no. 114.

Further Wanli mark and period wucai boxes of this design include one in the Manchester City Art Galleries, illustrated in C.M. Kauffman, 'Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Manchester City Art Galleries', Oriental Art, vol. V, Autumn 1959, pp. 120-22, pl. 3; one formerly in the collection of George and Cornelia Wingfield Digby, later in the Meiyintang Collection and sold at our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 48; and a third sold at Christie's Paris, 19th December 2012, lot 95. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 12 sept. 2018, 10:30 AM