CIZHOU POTTERY BOX WITH BUTTERFLIES

Northern Song or Jin dynasty, 12th century

Diameter: 4 1/2 inches, 11.4 cm

Height: 1 1/2 inches, 3.8 cm

磁州窑白地黑花双蝶纹盖盒

A pottery straight-sided box and cover, supported on a low foot rim. The interior and exterior are covered in a finely crackled, creamy white glaze of Cizhou type, leaving the rims and the base uncovered and showing the fine grained pottery. The domed cover is painted in underglaze black with two confronting, stylized butterflies in flight. An oblique incised slash on the sides marks the alignment of box and cover.

A Cizhou pottery box and cover of similar shape, painted with a floral spray, is in the Meyintang collection.[1]

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Japan.  Priestley & Ferraro, no. 2125, London

1. Krahl, R, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (II) London 2006, no. 1544, p. 547.