Meiping Vase with Carved Floral Sprays (960–1279): Art, History and Details

Meiping Vase with Carved Floral Sprays (960–1279) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This magnificent plum vase (meiping) derives its name from being used to hold a branch from a flowering plum tree. Vases of this shape with a round shoulder and narrow opening originally served as wine containers. Kilns in southern China that produced this ware with a transparent bluish glaze were among the first that applied underglaze blue-and-white decoration, which became popular during the Yuan (1271–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties. These elegantly carved floral sprays on a monochromatic ground reflect the refined taste of the Song dynasty emperors.

Object facts

• Title: Meiping Vase with Carved Floral Sprays
• Date: 960–1279
• Culture: China, Song dynasty (960–1279)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with pale bluish-white glaze, qingbai ("blue-white") ware
• Dimensions: Overall: 37.7 x 23.5 cm (14 13/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2017.20

Collection credit

Gift of Donna and James Reid

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Gifts of Works of Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 57, no. 6 (November/December 2017): 28.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.