Fragment of the lid of a small Qingbai-glazed covered box

Object Details

• Description

  Shape: Fragment of the cover of a small porcelain box. Original height of the box would have been approximately 5.0 cm, with a diameter of approximately 4.5 cm. The shard is 0.3 cm thick.

  Clay: Very fine, extremely white porcelain with significant air pockets.

  Glaze: Clear, uncrackled Qingbai glaze which is a rich blue-green where it pools in the impressed decoration.

  Decoration: Impressed fluting which radiates out from the center of the box cover. The fluting divides the cover into lobes which are approximately 1.0 cm wide at the edge. The center of the cover is slightly depressed where the fluting comes together suggesting that the box was molded and decorated so as to simulate a melon or pumpkin shape.

  Marks: None.

• Provenance

  To 1957

  John A. Pope (1906-1982), Washington DC, collected between August 1956 and April 1957 in Angkor, Cambodia. [1]

  From 1957

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of John A. Pope, Washington DC [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record. See also “Ceramics in Mainland and Southeast Asia: Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery”, copy in object file, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1. See also object file, Collections Management Office.

• Collection

  Freer Study Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Dr. John Alexander Pope (1906-1982)

• Origin

  Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of John A. Pope

• Type

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1200s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander

• Place

  China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen

• Topic

  Porcelain, Art, Qingbai ware, Chinese Art, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), Ceramics

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Containers