QINGBAI PORCELAIN LOBED BOX

Song dynasty, 12th – 13th century

Diameter: 2 1/4 inches, 6 cm

Height: 1 1/2 inches, 3.8 cm

湖田窑瓜棱粉盒

A small lobed qingbai porcelain box of compressed drum shape. The box resembles a chrysanthemum flower; both the cover and the bottom section are moulded with thirteen fluted designs around the sides and the cover has a finial in the form of a stalk.The box is covered in a thin, translucent pale bluish glaze, leaving the rims and base uncovered, exposing the sugary white body. The base is mould-impressed with a five-character shop mark within a rectangle reading Wu Jia He Zi Ji (box of the Wu family). The box has small scratches in the glaze on the side edges to facilitate lining up both parts.

The marks on the base of qingbai boxes refer to the shops that supplied them, they are not maker’s marks. The shape of this box is based on a contemporary silver example, such as a box in the Meiyintang collection illustrated by Krahl.[1]

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby’s Hong Kong 28.11. 2016, Lot 373

1. Krahl, R, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (II) London 2006, fig.26, p. 403