The top delicately incised with a large full-face five-clawed dragon holding an overflowing 'treasure basin' aloft amidst stylised clouds and above crested waves breaking against jagged rocks at the base, all picked out in red, brown, green and black and reserved on a diaper-ground of wan characters within squares and bordered by a key-fret band, each tall side with a single lotus bloom borne on leafy tendrils, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection.

Note: Compare with a dated Wanli circular box and cover of the same pattern in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 226, no. 178.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 31 May 2010