Lot 273. A blue and white box and cover, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566). Diameter 7 5/8 in., 19.4 cm. Estimate 12,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot sold 11,250 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the bowl with an everted rim, supported on a tall, slightly spreading hollow foot, painted on the exterior with a scholar on a horse the cover of compressed domed form, painted in vibrant cobalt-blue featuring a large central medallion enclosing peach branches borne on a gnarled trunk forming a stylized shou character, flanked by two lingzhi sprays, the curved sides of the cover and box each with four lobed panels enclosing peach sprays, each section bordered by a key-fret band around the rim, all supported on a slightly tapered foot, six-character mark in underglaze blue  (2). 

Provenance: Acquired in Japan between 1947 and 1952 and thence by descent.

Note: A similar Jiajing box of this design but with key-fret bands around the rim, formerly in the Bloxam Collection, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is illustrated in R. L. Hobson, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, 1931, pl. 205. A very similar example was sold in our London rooms, 10th July 1979, lot 141 and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 20th November 1984, lot 328.