

Boxes painted with this motif are unusual, although very similar example from the Lauritzen Collection, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in Jan Wirgin, ‘Ming Wares in the Lauritzen Collection’, BMFEA, no. 37, 1965, pl. 33; and another, from the collection of Sir A. Aykroyd, was sold in our London rooms, 17th May 1966, lot 21. A similar sectioned box of the same size and painted with a variation of the same design in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 40.
This motif is also known on boxes painted in underglaze blue only, such as an example from the Huaihaitang Collection, included in the exhibition Enlightening Elegance. Imperial Porcelain of the Ming to Late Ming, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2012, cat. no. 104; and another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th November 1982, lot 106.