Longquan stoneware box and cover
China, Northern Song dynasty, 960 – 1127

A stoneware box of circular shape, the bottom section with a small, concave base. The short, straight sides taper towards the slightly domed cover and the top has an incised design of four chrysanthemums clustered together. Both the interior and the exterior of the box are covered in an olive-green glaze that graduates to an almost white tone on the rim of the cover, leaving only the inside rims and the base unglazed and exposing the finely grained greyish clay.

• This box with its subtle, engraved decoration was produced at the Longquan kilns in southern Zhejiang province. The distinctive bluish-green colour of the glaze that characterises Longquan ware is primarily attributable to the smoky firing technique employed at the kilns, which converted the small amount of iron present in the glaze into ferrous oxide.1 The shape of the box strongly suggest an influence of earlier metalwork, particularly that of the preceding Tang dynasty (618 – 906). Describing a similar example from the Meiyintang collection, Krahl states that boxes with such incised designs can be dated to the Northern Song dynasty.2 A closely related box is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.3

1 Gompertz, G. St. G. M. Chinese Celadon Wares, Faber and Faber, London 1958 & 1980, p.164
2 Krahl, R. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume One, Azimuth Editions, London 1994, no. 548, pp. 292-3
3 Li, He, Chinese Ceramics, the New Standard Guide, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1996, fig. 11, p. 137