Page 81 - Nov 2019 Hong Kong SOtheby's Chinese Art

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A RARE BLUE-GLAZED MEIPING Covered overall in a vibrant cobalt, this piece belongs to a
EARLY MING DYNASTY rare group of meiping that illustrate one of the first attempts
at creating a monochrome blue glaze in the Ming dynasty.
sturdily potted with full rounded shoulders rising at a gently Vessels of this type were expensive to produce as they
flaring angle from the base and sweeping to a short waisted required copious amounts of cobalt, a rare and expensive
neck with a lipped rim, the exterior applied evenly with an commodity that needed to be imported from Iran. Each
intense cobalt-blue glaze, the base left unglazed to reveal vase was dipped, possibly more than once, into a glaze mix
scattered iron spots, Japanese wood box containing cobalt oxide in order to achieve the distinctive
h. 13¾ in, 34.8 cm dark blue tone seen on the present piece.
HK$ 200,000-300,000 A meiping of this type, in the Metropolitan Museum of
US$ 25,500-38,300 Art, New York, is published in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A
Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 146; one
in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, is illustrated in The
明初 藍釉梅瓶 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 180, no. 764;
and a third, from the Gulbenkian Museum, Durham, was
sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September 2000, lot 296. A
further example in Japan is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu /
Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 155.

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