Page 29 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

Fig. 1 A tianbai-glazed meiping, Fig. 2 A tianbai-glazed meiping,
Ming dynasty, Yongle period Ming dynasty, Yongle period
© Jingdezhen Ceramics © Shanghai Museum
Archaeology Institute
©
©

2

It seems that the exact outline of the meiping shape was much experimented 1996
with at Jingdezhen. It had already been altered from the Yuan (1279-1368) to 101
the Hongwu period (1368-1398); two new versions of Yongle and of Xuande date
are known from rejects at the kilns, another appears to be preserved in a single 2007
example in the Shanghai Museum. Given the superb silhouette of the piece
o ered here, it is not surprising that this present version triumphed and was 3 18
most frequently used in both periods not only for white but also for blue-and-
white specimens. 2015
63
Compare an undecorated example of more heavy, less elegant proportions,
with a thick rim ange, the only ‘sweet-white’ Yongle meiping published from Oriental Ceramics The
the Ming imperial kiln site excavations, in Jingdezhen chutu Ming chu guanyao
ciqi/Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang World’s Great Collections 10
Foundation, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 101 ( g. 1); with a larger, plain ‘sweet-white’
meiping of quite di erent proportions in the Shanghai Museum, also attributed 1980 46 47
to the Yongle reign, in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/
Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai
guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-18 ( g. 2 ); and
an undecorated meiping, excavated with cover and stand from the Xuande
stratum of the Ming imperial kiln sites, which is closer again to Yuan prototypes,
illustrated in Mingdai Xuande yuyao ciqi/Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of
Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pl. 63. A smaller lotus-decorated
Yongle meiping, similar to the present piece in shape, is compared with a Yuan
dynasty piece, both in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Oriental Ceramics.
The World’s Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, 1980,
col. pls 46 and 47.