W:8.8cmA Petal lobed Qingbai Box and Cover, Southern Song dynastythe glaze of good pale blue tone, with eight petalled rim and rounded sides, the flat top decorated in low relief with a diamond shaped grid diaper enclosing leaves, the neat inner rims and base left unglazed exposing the pale wareA qingbai porcelain box of eight-lobed form with a corresponding raised panel on the top. The slightly domed cover is mould-impressed in low relief with rhombuses and ears of wheat. The feathers are vividly depicted in detail. The box is covered in a thin, translucent pale blue glaze, leaving the rims and the base uncovered, revealing the sugary white body and few brown and black firing marks on the base. Ding and qingbai wares are both considered white wares, but qingbai porcelain is the true white porcelain because of the sugary white and the translucent body. Qingbai porcelains are fired in a so-called dragon kiln with wood fuels and the brown burn marks on the base are due to the re-oxidation process and iron impurities in the clay body. Cosmetic boxes of round shape are often formed with petal decoration on the sides, and there are many qingbai boxes from the Hutian kiln that display this feature. A comparable eight-lobed qingbai circular box of smaller size and decorated in relief with a floral motif was excavated in 1952 and is now in the Chongqing City Museum in Sichuan province.