meiping; cover BM-1972-0620.1

Period:Yuan dynasty Production date:1330-1368 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:fruit,flower dragon lotus
Dimensions:Height: 44.50 centimetres (with lid) Width: 22 centimetres

Description:
Meiping and cover with underglaze blue decoration. This heavily potted meiping has broadly sloping shoulders and narrowing sides which spread out again towards the foot. It has a narrow neck with an everted thickened-edge rim. Its tall cover has a slight waist and fits over the neck. It has a flat top with a lotus-bud finial. Its surface decoration is divided into horizontal bands painted in ‘heaped and piled’ shades of cobalt blue beneath the glaze. A powerful three-clawed dragon with an S-shaped neck, scaly body, whiskers, protruding tongue and bared teeth is painted among ruyi clouds with a band of classic scroll above. A ruyi-shaped collar around the neck is filled, in the following order, with flowering chrysanthemums, pomegranates, chrysanthemums and peonies. The foot is decorated with lappets framing foliage scrolls. Lotus petals are painted around the cover. The base is unglazed.
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Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:In 1980 covered meiping of this form with underglaze blue decoration were excavated from the Yuan dynasty hoard at Gao’an county, Jiangxi province, and are now in the collection of the Gao’an County Museum. Such meiping were used as containers for wine in the Yuan. It is quite rare for the cover to survive intact. Meiping with different decoration in the Topkapi Saray indicate that such vessels were also traded with or presented as gifts to the Near East during the Yuan era.