Box with design of floral medallions

Pale Blue Wares of the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960–1368)

In the 900s, ceramics with pale blue (qingbai, literally “bluish white”) glaze were used in southeastern China’s Jiangxi province. High-fired with a lustrous glaze (having low iron content) on a thin, white body with incised or molded designs, Qingbai wares have acquired a reputation of being like jade, which historically came in a range of pale colors in addition to the jade green we think of today. One of the more commonly produced subtypes of Qingbai wares was Jingdezhen porcelain, valued for its unsurpassed pale blue glaze. Vast quantities of these wares supplied domestic markets and export trade.