Meiping Vase with Cloud Collars and Peony Sprays (1403–24): Art, History and Details

Meiping Vase with Cloud Collars and Peony Sprays (1403–24) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This beautiful vase, called a meiping, is a testimony to the extremely high standards demanded for imperial white porcelain of the Yongle period. It is exquisitely potted and subtly decorated with "hidden decoration" (anhua) incised into the body. The clear glaze over the white body has a luster and purity; the white color radiates with a soft glow like melting snow, described by the Chinese connoisseurs as tianbai, or "sweetwhite." Tianbai wares were produced for use in imperial offerings and have always been considered a great achievement of the Yongle period.

Object facts

• Title: Meiping Vase with Cloud Collars and Peony Sprays
• Date: 1403–24
• Culture: China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen kilns, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Yongle period (1403-1424)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with incised decoration and white glaze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 20.3 cm (8 in.); Overall: 32.1 cm (12 5/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Ming Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.167

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Sherman E. Lee. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [New York]: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

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.