Lot 62. A 'Yaozhou' celadon carved box and cover, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). Diameter 4 1/8  in., 10.5 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 40,000 USD. Lot sold 125,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

in the form of a drum, carved around the box with a band of pendent petal lappets and a leafy stem on the cover, the beveled edges on both the box and cover applied with nine detached florets, covered on the exterior and the sides of the interior in a golden celadon glaze, the base unglazed revealing the pale gray body (2). 

Note: It is rare to find boxes of this form, and their exact function remains unknown. However, see a slightly smaller box and cover in the Shaanxi Archaeology Institute, referred to as a weiqi box, and published in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese Ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 7, pl. 132. See another related box with different carving, excavated in 1974 from the Juntai kiln site and illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji / Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2008, vol. 12, pl. 130; and another of slightly larger size, also with different carving, discovered in Huangbaozhen, Shaanxi Province in 1985, illustrated in The Masterpieces of Yaozhou ware, Osaka, 1997, no. 76.  Another related box and cover in the Meiyintang collection is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, vol. 1, 1994, no. 422.

Sotheby's. Song Tradition: Early Ceramics from the Yang De Tang Collection. New York, 17 march 2015, 11:00 AM