Lot 146. A blue and white 'dragon' box and a cover, the cover Wanli period, the box 19th century. Width 26.7 cm, 10½ in. Estimate: 8,000 - 12,000 GBP. Lot sold 16,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

of square quatrelobed form, the cover painted with a pair of confronting five-clawed dragons reaching for a peach inscribed with the shou character borne on a leafy steam emerging from rockwork amidst crashing waves, the sides with four sinuous dragons flying amidst cloud scrolls, the matched box similarly decorated, the base inscribed with an apocryphal six-character mark.