Lot 3731. A blue and white circular box and cover, Wanli six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1573-1619); 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 1,340,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

 The domed cover well painted with a scene of four boys at play in a courtyard, surrounded by a band of four dragons striding amidst clouds in pursuit of 'flaming pearls', a narrow band of composite floral scroll encircling the rim, repeated on the rim of the box, above four striding dragons encircling the foot ring, all outlined in dark underglaze blue and filled in with an underglaze blue of purplish tone.

Property of the Yiqingge Collection.

Note: The present box is probably one of the smallest in the series that were produced during the Wanli period designed with the 'boys at play' theme. A related small box and cover of rectangular form (11.7 cm. long and 7.8 cm. wide) decorated with four boys seated in a garden landscape, in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book VI, CAFA, Hong Kong, 1963, p. 44, pl. 8. The present box is probably one of the smallest in the series that were produced during the Wanli period designed with the 'boys at play' theme. A related small box and cover of rectangular form (11.7 cm. long and 7.8 cm. wide) decorated with four boys seated in a garden landscape, in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book VI, CAFA, Hong Kong, 1963, p. 44, pl. 8.