PROVENANCE: From Private collections of Mr. Peter Lyon (1938-2016), After graduation in 1959 he joined the military and was trained as a fighter pilot for the Marine corp. Retiring from the military his next career was as a commercial pilot for Pan American and United Airlines flying 747 aircraft in the pacific and orient. During his layovers he searched for fine porcelains which he proudly added to his private collection. A portion of his collection is being sold at auction to benefit his charitable interests. Dimensions: 3" H x 5-1/2" Chinese Ming Dynasty Period, WanLi box. Stoutly potted Chinese porcelain unto a round box, with wide cavetto, correspondence dome lid, raised from round sides over a wide cavetto Inner flange circumscribed around the containers lip allows for a perfect fitment of the covering with single blue thick rings lines on the each rim. The exterior decorated with hand-painting in cobalt blue underglazed, depicted of snarling huge imperial five claws dragon careening through cumulus clouds above thrashing Li-shui waves in a dark blue color dragon squama to chasing flaming pearl amidst flames and vapors. Enclosed with double fine blue rings lines. A characteristic heaped and piled effect, the under glaze grayish-blue concentrates in certain areas, bubbling through the surface of the glaze and turning a deep blue-black. This inadvertently gave texture, energy, and shading to the design. Mark on under base, a six under glazed blue script characters reign mark, Wanli Reign Period of Great Ming Dynasty. See More