Cover for a Qingbai Ware Bowl (1100s–1200s): Art, History and Details

Cover for a Qingbai Ware Bowl (1100s–1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

While dark-glazed ceramics resemble black lacquer ware, and celadons were often compared to green jade, white or bluish-white glazed stoneware imitates silver. Here, broad silver bands around the bowls’ rims accentuate their precious appearance. The incised petals are inspired by lotus flowers and the domed covers by their circular leaves. The lotus motif often indicates the use of an object in a Buddhist context, in which it is a symbol of purity as its flowers emerge unsullied from the mud of lakes and ponds. Alternatively, these bowls may have been used to hold food at banquets.

Object facts

• Title: Cover for a Qingbai Ware Bowl
• Date: 1100s–1200s
• Culture: South China, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with pale bluish-white glaze, Qingbai ware
• Dimensions: Lid: 4 x 15.3 cm (1 9/16 x 6 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2020.173.1.b

A detail from the museum

The kilns in which qingbai ware were fired used pine wood as fuel, preventing oxidation and creating the distinct blue-green tint.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Vainker, S. J. Chinese Pottery and Porcelain. London: British Museum, 2005.
• Von Spee, Clarissa. "Chinese Ceramics and Works on Paper." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194–229. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.