The rather large circular box is of flattened form, the sides straight, the cover with a raised ridge around the periphery bordering the compressed dome-shaped lid, the receptacle mirroring the shape of the lid producing a symmetrical and perfectly balanced form. The exterior, save for the base and rims of both lid and receptacle, is covered with a glaze that is a muted copper green, perhaps the result of a pale, amber-toned glaze base or, on the other hand, an irregular application of glaze allowing the body to show through beneath the thinner areas of green, resulting in a mottled effect. The surface is smooth and bright with a minuscule pattern of fine crackling. Each interior is covered with a transparent pale amber-colored glaze. All unglazed areas, including the base, reveal the soft pinkish-buff color of the earthenware body material.
Due to the unusual color of its glaze, the box is a rare example within the family of sancai, “three-colored,” earthenwares of the Tang period. Copper-green glazes originated during the Han period, their bright, vibrant green colors lighting up the flourishing world of mingqi, spirit objects produced as funerary trove to accompany the deceased to the netherworld. The revival of this aesthetic preference during the Tang resulted not only in bright green monochromes, but often green combined with other colors of the sancai spectrum. The most common color joined with green, was amber. The use of the colors together ranged from a careful separation of the colors to overlapping and even blending to create spontaneous, chance effects (fig. 1); here, the two materials are so blended that a quite exceptional color is born.
Fig. 1: Green-and-amber glazed earthenware box, Tang dynasty, after Margaret Medley, An Exhibition of Tang Sancai Pottery Selected from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, London, 1988, no. 26, p. 55.
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