Sold Ceramics - Sold Zhangzhou (Swatow) wares 1570-1650 - Other wares - Page 1

Object 201073

Covered box

(Southeast) China, Zhangzhou (Swatow)

1579-1620

Height 50 mm (1.97 inch), diameter of rim 70 mm (2.76 inch). diameter of footring 40 mm (1.57 inch)

Covered box on footring nearly vertical sides with a domed cover with knob. Decorated in underglaze blue with broad panels filled with flowering stems and narrow panels filled with ribbons. The cover, with everted rim, is similarly decorated. On the base a hand written number '52', most likely an old collectors number.

After dishes the largest category of Swatow ware found in Indonesia is boxes. Most covered boxes/jars were found in Sulawesi, Indonesia. There these boxes are named tempat bedak, or powder boxes; this must have been their main function. Volker noted that the name boxese in the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) archives is boreh-boreh. Boreh is the Javanese term for powder kept as small dry pills which are mixed with water for instant use. (Adhyatman 1999, p.30)

For a similarly decorated covered jar, please see:

Zhangzhou (Swatow) Ceramics. Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries Found in Indonesia, (S. Adhyatman, The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, 1999), p.136, cat.176b.

Condition: A frit to the rim of the box.

Reference:

Adhyatman 1999, cat. 176b

Price: Sold.