PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION A RARE BLUE-AND-WHITE INGOT-SHAPED 'DRAGON' BOX AND COVERWanli mark and of the period Painted in vivid shades of cobalt blue, the top of the doomed cover decorated with a pair of dragons contesting a flaming pearl, the rounded sides of the cover and box each decorated with four dragons encircling the walls and finished with a raised band of chevron pattern, the short straight foot mirroring the ingot shape, the interior glazed and pared clean at the rims, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue written in a straight line at base. Fitted wood stand. 22in (21.8cm) wide 明萬曆 青花雙龍戲珠紋銀錠式蓋盒 青花《大明萬曆年製》單行款 Provenance: iGavel, circa 2014 or 2015. 來源： 愛嘉福（iGavel）拍賣行，約2014至2015年 Porcelain boxes modeled on an ingot shape are very rare. A blue-and-white Wanli marked box of this form and decoration in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is illustrated by H. Li, Chinese Ceramics: A Newprehensive Survey , New York, 1996, p. 227, no. 435, with description on p. 254, where the author describes: "The mark follows the shape of the box and appears in a single column instead of the moremon two-column arrangement. The piece, with imperial five-clawed dragons and mark, is a rarity among Wanli boxes." Another similar porcelain ingot-shaped box in the collection of the Newark Museum is illustrated in the catalogue of exhibition organized by the China Institute of America, Exhibition of Chinese Art from the Newark Museum , New York, 1980, no. 26. pare also other closely related covered boxes, in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain , Fribourg, 1978, pl. 213; and in the Baur Collection and illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection: Chinese Ceramics , vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, pl. A187. A few of the Wanli marked boxes of this form and decoration were sold at auctions: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 December 2017, lot 315; and at Sotheby's London, 12 May 2010, lot 12; and at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2007, lot 1458.