Box

Qingbai porcelain boxes were quite popular during the Song Dynasty. In addition to the Hutian kilns in Jingdezhen, other Qingbai kilns in southern and northern Fujian also excelled in producing these printed boxes. Presumably used as oil boxes, powder boxes, incense boxes, and medicine boxes, these boxes frequently appear in Song Dynasty tombs and were also a key export item to Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Qingbai porcelain boxes bearing family names are mostly products of the Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi Province. Song Dynasty porcelain boxes were primarily produced at the Jingdezhen and Dehua kilns. Qingbai porcelain boxes with printed glaze from the Dehua kilns in Fujian Province generally lack family names. For example, boxes bearing inscriptions such as "Wu Jia Hezi Ji" and "Duan Jia Hezi Ji" have been discovered at the Hutian kiln site. Jingdezhen kiln boxes with inscriptions are also superior in quality to those from the Dehua kilns. Qingbai porcelain boxes bearing family names are generally products of the Northern Song Dynasty.

During the Song Dynasty, my country's overseas trade was highly developed. More than 20 kinds of spices from various countries, including musk, agarwood, sandalwood, and Indian incense, were widely available throughout the court and the country. As a result, porcelain boxes for holding spices, powder, rouge, and vermilion, among other women's cosmetics, came into being.

Boxes bearing inscriptions were common among Song Dynasty Jingdezhen kiln products. These marks were applied by different workshops to their products for advertising purposes. Typically, they featured a single line of inscriptions, "X Family Hezi Ji," printed in positive Chinese characters on the bottom of the box, with the character for "he" (he) written as "he." Thirteen workshops were involved in these inscriptions: Duan, Xu, Cai, Wu, Wang, Lan, Zhu, Xu, Cheng, Zhang, Yu, Chen, and Pan. This reflects the fierce competition and scale of the industry at the time.