Antique Ming Wanli Chinese Kraak Porcelain Betel Box Flowers Butterflies 17C

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Condition Report: Restored section to the lid. Size: 13.5x5.5x5CM

Sharing with you this unusual early 17th-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelain covered box, made at Jingdezhen during the late Ming dynasty, Wanli to Tianqi period, circa 1600–1625.

The box has rounded corners. The interior of the base is divided into two compartments. The cover is finely painted in underglaze cobalt blue with flowering plants and butterflies, surrounded by alternating panels of floral sprays and geometric diaper patterns. The exterior of the base is more sparsely decorated with plants and grasses.

Boxes of this form are traditionally described as betel boxes. Their precise original function remains uncertain, however, and comparable examples may also have been used for cosmetics, medicines or other valuable substances. Boxes of this form were exported in limited numbers and are considerably rarer than the familiar Kraak dishes, plates and bowls.

Several closely related examples are illustrated in the standard literature. Maura Rinaldi classifies these oblong covered boxes as Shape II.2: Betel Boxes, dating the group to circa 1605–1650. A comparable example in the Lurie Collection is dated circa 1600–1620.

Dating: Ming dynasty, Wanli–Tianqi period, circa 1600–1625
Material: Porcelain decorated in underglaze cobalt blue
Origin: Jingdezhen, China

Literature

• Maura Rinaldi, Kraak Porcelain: A Moment in the History of Trade, Bamboo Publishing, London, 1989, pp. 188–189, Shape II.2 and pls. 246–248.
• Teresa Canepa, Jingdezhen to the World: The Lurie Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Late Ming Dynasty, Jorge Welsh Research and Publishing, 2019, catalogue no. 53, pp. 144–145, for a closely related Kraak covered box dated circa 1600–1620.

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