Qingbai porcelain box

A porcelain box of six-lobed form with slightly domed cover, supported on a shallow foot.  The cover is decorated with a raised pattern of a bunch of lotus flowers and leaves. The exterior and interior of the box are covered in a very fine translucent glaze of bluish colour, which pools to a deeper tone in the crevasses.  The rims and base are unglazed, showing the fine-grained white porcelain body, with characteristic reddish-brown firing marks underneath.

• The technique of using raised lines to depict flowers and plants seen on this box is unusual in Qingbai porcelain; designs are usually either impressed into the clay or incised, most often in combination with combed patterns.  Boxes of this size are probably intended as containers for cosmetics, such as rouge for the lips. A slightly smaller, inscribed box of this form is in the British Museum.1  Another comparable box with a floral design to the cover and bearing an inscription was excavated from a tomb datable to 1111 AD in Poyan County, Jiangxi province.2  

1. Pierson, S. (ed.) Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Percival David Collection of Chinese Art, London 2002, no. 100, pp. 186-7
2. Peng S. (ed.) Dated Qingbai Wares of the Song and Yuan dynasties Hong Kong 1998, no. 29, p. 52