QINGBAI COSMETIC BOX AND COVER.

CHINA.

SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY.

1127 – 1279 AD .

D. 8 CMS, 3 1/8 INS.

A porcelain box and cover of circular form, the slightly domed cover mould stamped and sculpted with a spray of flowers within a foliate rim, a pale blue (Qingbai) glaze covering the lid and sides of the base, leaving the rims and base unglazed to show the white clay body.

Women of the Song dynasty favoured small boxes to contain different cosmetic materials.

For a similar box decorated with flowers see fig. 290, page 161, He Li, Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, 1996. There are comparable examples of cosmetic boxes in the British Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Barlow Collection, University of East Sussex; all illustrated as plates 100, 103, 104 and 105 in Stacey Pierson, Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Percival David Foundation of Art, 2002.

PROVENANCE: Private English collection. Acquired by the owner’s father during employment with the British Foreign Service during the 1950s or 1960s.