WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1620)

As discussed by Rosemary Scott in the introduction to this catalogue, while the ingot shape is more commonly found in lacquer ware, it is rare in porcelain, perhaps because of the difficulty in firing the complex curved shape. The shape in porcelain appears in Longqing-period blue and white boxes, such as one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty – VI, Hong Kong, 1963, pl. 2. (Fig. 1)

Similarly decorated blue and white ingot-shaped boxes from the Wanli period can be found in several important museum collections. A very similar example to the present box from the Grandidier Collection, G. 5787, now in the Museé Guimet, Paris, is illustrated by A. LeBonheur in The World’s Great Collections, Oriental Ceramcis, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, no. 79. Other related examples include one in the Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated by J. Ayers in The Baur Collection, Chinese Ceramics, Volume II, Geneva, 1969, no. A187; one in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by He Li in Chinese Ceramics, A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, fig. 435; and one in the Newark Museum, illustrated by V. Reynolds and Yen Fen Pei in Chinese Art from the Newark Museum, China House Gallery, New York, 1980, p. 48, no. 26.