A RARE WUCAI OPENWORK 'LINGZHI' BOX AND COVER MARK AND PERIOD OF WANLI

of rectangular form supported on four shaped corner feet, with slanted sides widening towards the flanged rims, the cover decorated in a wucai palette with a barbed lozenge-shaped panel containing multi-coloured lingzhi sprays among a dense foliage, the design conforming to a lightly incised outline under the glaze, with small holes pierced in between and single fungus heads at the four corners, the sides and the feet similarly painted with lingzhi scrolls, the flanged rims picked out with a thin red and blue 'classic' scroll border, the base unglazed, centred with a horizontal glazed cartouche inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double square

Collection of Dr. A.E. Cumberbatch (1910).
Christie’s London, 9th June 1997, lot 87.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7th May 2002, lot 549.

Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1910, no. H 33 (catalogue published 1911, illustrated col. pl. XL).

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1705.

The box has an original firing flaw with an associated triangular flake of 1 x 0.6 x 0.7 cm to its raised inner rim and a minor flake of 0.2 x 0.1 cm to the outer rim. There are a few firing cracks and a small round glaze flake of 0.3 x 0.4 cm to the rim of the cover, as well as some expected mild wear to the overglaze enamels, but overall the box and the cover are in quite good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Another Wanli box of this form and design from the Holger Lauritzen collection in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco, 1980–82, vol. 8, no. 249; one in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, is published in Tōyō tōji meihin zuroku [Catalogue of masterpieces of Oriental ceramics], Matsuoka Bijutsukan, Tokyo, 1991, col. pl. 99; one in the Shanghai Museum is published in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-89; and one with slightly different colouration, later in the Jingguantang collection, Hong Kong, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 13th November 1990, lot 151.