Lot 79. A Qingbai box and cover, Song dynasty. Diameter 5 1/2  in., 14 cm. Estimate 12,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot sold 15 000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of compressed globular form with lobed sides resembling the petals of a chrysanthemum flower, finely molded on the cover with a floral scroll, applied on the interior with three small barbed-rim cups separated by three curved stems of lotus pods issuing from a central bud, applied overall with a transparent glaze pooling to a light turquoise blue in the recesses, the raised interior rim and base left unglazed revealing the smooth white body (2). 

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, November 1987.

Note: See a closely related box and cover also with three cups on the interior, of smaller size, unearthed at Guaxian, Shaowu City, and now in the Shaowu Museum, published in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji / Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2008, vol. 11, pl. 117. See also, an almost identical box from the Yang de Tang collection, sold in these rooms, 17th March 2015, lot 103.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015