A blue and white 'Dragon and Lotus' box and cover, Mark and period of Wanli. Photo: Sotheby's.

of rectangular form with bombé sides and indented corners, supported on a low rectangular foot, deftly painted in shaded tones of cobalt, the raised top with two five-clawed dragons vying for a 'flaming pearl' amongruyi-shaped clouds, one plunging the other leaping above a tempestuous sea breaking against jagged rocks, the sides decorated with upright pomegranate flowers wreathed in curling foliate stems, divided by ruyi-petalled flowers supporting auspicious emblems at the corners and repeated around the box, the raised rims picked out with key-fret, the foot encircled by a cusped fillet, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within double squares; 3.7 cm., 9 3/8  in. Estimate 800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 11th June 1991, lot 160. 

A Wanli box of this type is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 108; one from the Lauritzen collection in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is included in   L. Reidemeister, Ming-Porzellane ind schwedischen Sammlungen, Berlin,  Leipzig, 1935, pl. 38; another from the collection of Chester Beatty was sold in our London rooms, 12th June 2003, lot 150; and a fourth example was sold in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2010, lot 1. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 - www.sothebys.com