The domed cover of this circular box is elegantly painted with flowering plants. The refined decoration executed in underglaze cobalt blue and the small size of the box suggest that it may have been used to contain seal paste. While seal-paste boxes are not identified as one of the ‘Four Treasures’ of a scholar’s studio, they were an important part of a gentleman’s writing desk as they stored the red paste with which he affixed his seal on a painting or calligraphy. Conversely, such small porcelain boxes may have been used by women for keeping ointments and cosmetics. These boxes were apparently popular overseas as well, as over a thousand small, circular porcelain boxes were found in the Hatcher shipwreck, an Asian ship that sank in the South China Sea around 1643.
