Page 304 - CHRISTIE'S Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art 09/14 - 15 / 17

1183
A RARE IRON-RED, GREEN, YELLOW AND
TURQUOISE-GLAZED VASE, MEIPING

LATE MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY
The vase is decorated predominantly in iron
red and green with small touches of yellow and
turquoise glaze, the upper register with two pairs
of four-clawed dragons contesting a faming pearl
amidst ruyi-form clouds and above waves crashing
against rocks, and the lower register with two
phoenixes with long, trailing tail feathers in fight
amidst leafy fower scroll, all between a cloud
collar on the shoulder, and a petal-lappet band
above the foot.
9Ω in. (24.2 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

$20,000-30,000

The particular combination of iron-red and green,
yellow and turquoise glazes on this slender
meiping, found primarily during the Jiajing
period (1521-1567). According to Daisy Lion-
Goldschmidt in Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978,
p. 164, in her discussion of the ‘Red-and-Green’
Group, this palette would come to dominate
polychrome porcelains, eventually leading to the
appearance of famille verte during the second
half of the seventeenth century. Wares of this
type were usually decorated primarily in iron-red
and green, with some yellow. More unusually,
there was sometimes the addition of turquoise,
as seen on a large jar and cover in the Musée
Guimet, illustrated op. cit., p. 165, pl. 146, and on
the present meiping. See, also, the more broadly
proportioned meiping of Jiajing date illustrated by
Liu Liang-yu in Ming Oficial Wares, Taipei,1991,
p. 195, that is decorated in iron-red and green
with two bands of fower scroll arranged between
decorative borders above and below in a fashion
similar to the decoration on the present meiping.
明十六世紀 五彩龍鳳紋梅瓶

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