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Lot Essay
The decorative scheme on this elegant meiping is very rare. A larger meiping of slightly less elongated proportions with phoenix among floral scrolls around the shoulder, a peony scroll around the central band and petal panels with classic scroll segments around the foot is in the collection of the Ardebil Shrine, Iran and is illustrated by J.Pope in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, Freer Gallery, 1956, pl. 25, no. 29.406. A much less strongly painted example with birds of a different type in the floral scrolls around the shoulder was sold in Hong Kong in May 1989, but the flowers in the peony band on that piece were of circular form, as on the Ardebil vase, rather than the dramatic triangular form seen on the current vase.
The exceptionally fine painting on the current meiping is much closer to that seen on the superb vase excavated from Gao-an county in 1980 and illustrated in Gems of China's Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 172. That vase shares with the current example the pheonix among floral scrolls on the shoulder, but has a dragon in place of the main peony band. The strength of the painting in the peony band on the current vase is only matched by that on vessels like the meiping vase with similarly-sized band divisions, but with qilin in floral scrolls around the shoulders illustrated in Yuan dai ciqi, Beijing, 1998, p. 64, no. 87; the guan jar in the Chang Foundation, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, no. 73, or a meiping vase sold in our Hong Kong rooms in October 1994, lot 542A, which shares with the current lot the classic scroll segment in the petal panels.
The exceptionally fine painting on the current meiping is much closer to that seen on the superb vase excavated from Gao-an county in 1980 and illustrated in Gems of China's Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 172. That vase shares with the current example the pheonix among floral scrolls on the shoulder, but has a dragon in place of the main peony band. The strength of the painting in the peony band on the current vase is only matched by that on vessels like the meiping vase with similarly-sized band divisions, but with qilin in floral scrolls around the shoulders illustrated in Yuan dai ciqi, Beijing, 1998, p. 64, no. 87; the guan jar in the Chang Foundation, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, no. 73, or a meiping vase sold in our Hong Kong rooms in October 1994, lot 542A, which shares with the current lot the classic scroll segment in the petal panels.