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A Qingbai cosmetics box and cover, Southern Song Dynasty…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Auckland
Date:
12-Jun-2022
Lot No.
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Description:
A Qingbai cosmetics box and cover, Southern Song Dynasty (1128-1279), a circular shaped set with three small cup-shaped bowls divided by stems and buds of a flowering lotus. At least one of these small flower-cups has been restuck. The domed cover is moulded with 47 half-round ribs and applied with five florets on the top. The whole is glazed in a qingbai glaze which has pooled in the little cups. The cover has a pleasant 'Ring' whereas the base box has none. The cover is unglazed round its rim except where the glaze has oozed down from the top. There is a shining line round the residual glaze on the cover rim as though this lid was fired on a sharp circular edge to which the glaze did not stick. The box is covered inside and out with a bluer glaze than that of the cover and probably are not an original pair. There is a thumb mark in the base of the box which is unglazed. There are also a number of firing faults and this might have been a 'Kiln reject', many song tomb ceramics (mingqi) seem to have firing or potting faults, which perhaps made such a piece unsaleable to the general public. One wonders whether such 'Kiln rejects' were sold off as cheap tomb goods, rather than being chucked on the kiln dump. There has also been a debate on what these so-called 'Cosmetic boxes' were made for. They May have been for cosmetics, for the song women used lipstick, eye-shadow and rouge. But perhaps the boxes without the three little cups were used for holding spices or fragrances. For a box similar to the present one see plate 98 of song ceramics from the Kwan collection, Hong Kong, 1994, Provenance: The Dr. Francis de Hamel collection, diameter 14 cm, height 7 cm
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified