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Lot Essay
This type of finely made white stoneware box was undoubtedly influenced by a Tang dynasty silver prototype. Both the elegant form of the high foot and the flower shape of the body of the box are associated with Tang precious metals. A white-glazed ceramic box of similar type, with high flaring foot and with the box itself in the form of a four-petalled flower, was excavated in 1958 from a tomb in Changsha, Hunan province. The Hunan box, which has the character guan (official) incised on the base, and is dated to the late Tang dynasty, is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan, Taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 245, no. 238.
A less finely potted white box with the same bracket-lobed four-petalled shape as the Falk box is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Beijing box has a lower foot, in the center of which is the character wu, and is dated to the Five Dynasties period. See The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 274-5, no. 251.
A less finely potted white box with the same bracket-lobed four-petalled shape as the Falk box is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Beijing box has a lower foot, in the center of which is the character wu, and is dated to the Five Dynasties period. See The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 274-5, no. 251.