Lot 187. A rare carved 'Qingbai' 'daylily' vase (meiping), Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Height 9 1/4  in., 23.5 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Lot Sold 62,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the rounded shoulders and tapering body surmounted by a sloping neck set with a cupped mouth, boldly carved with a luxuriant foliate meander of flowering lily borne on slender stems issuing large curling leaves, all on a 'combed' ground and within incised double-line bands, covered overall in a lustrous translucent pale blue glaze, pooling in the carved recesses and falling short of the foot to reveal the white body.

Provenance: Tokyo Chuo Auction, lot 369, according to label.

Note: Meiping with a carved lily design are very rare. More often the forms are incised with lotus such as one illustrated Sekai Toji Zenshu, Vol.12,Tokyo, 1977, pl.30, now in the Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art, and more recently exhibited at the Tobu Museum of Art, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, no.50; peony blooms an example of which can be seen in Jinycun Hoard of Southern Song Dynasty in Suining, vol. 2, Suining Municipal Museum, Beijing, 2012, no. 104; and composite floral scrolls such as the vase illustrated in  The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, Shanghai, 1999, vol. 8, Part II, no. 200a. A similarly carved meiping with a peony meander was sold in these rooms 23rd March 2011, lot 564.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, New York, 17 march 2015, 02:00 PM