9. A moulded qingbai flower-shaped cosmetic box and cover

The box is of six-petalled flower shape moulded on top with an unusual design of a flowering plant, perhaps a stylised water plant, with three-petalled leaves, supporting an open bloom, a bud and another bloom seen from the side, all on a stippled ground. The interior is fitted with three small receptables with spiky or hexagonal outlines, suggesting lotus flowers, and three sinuous stems radiating from a central bud. The whole is applied with a very pale blue glaze, leaving the base unglazed.

Provenance:
English private collection
For another qingbai cosmetic box with lotus-decorated interior see 

Rose Kerr, Song Ceramics Through 21st Century Eyes, p.386-7

The plant depicted on the cover is difficult to identify, but may be a standing version of the type of flower described by Jan Wirgin in Sung Ceramic Designs, p.24,as a kind of water plant, appearing also (see no. 10 here) in a scrolling version which he calls “sickle-leaf scroll”. 

青白印花蓋盒

Dimensions: Diameter: 10.1 cm, 4 inches

Date: Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)