NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY (960-1127)

The vase is elegantly potted with an ovoid body flaring to a dish-shaped mouth, covered overall with a clear qingbai glaze. Song dynasty qingbai examples are normally decorated with carved floral motifs, undecorated vases of such purity and refinement as the present one are very rare.

Compare with a Northern Song white-glazed meiping of the same shape, preserved in the National Museum of History, Taipei, collection number: 87-005446; and one excavated in Jiangsu Province in 1973, now preserved in Zhenjiang Museum and illustrated in Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Vol. 7, Jiangsu Shanghai, Beijing, 2008, no.119.