Lot 2830. A carved Qingbai meiping, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Estimate HK$300,000 - HK$500,000 ($38,891 - $64,818). Price Realized HK$1,360,000 ($176,305). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The meiping with high-shouldered, tapering body is carved with a broad band of scrolling tendrils between double borders. It is covered inside and out with a glaze of pale aquamarine tone that ends above the foot to expose the fine biscuit ware. 10 1/4 in. (26.2 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo 

Literature: Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art, Tokyo, 2006, p. 67, no. 85

Exhibited: Sen Shu Tey, Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006, Catalogue, no. 85

Notes: Starting from the early Northern Song dynasty, kilns at Jingdezhen achieved success in producing very fine white-bodied porcelain covered with a glaze of icy blue tinge, earning the name qingbai, 'blue white', or yingqing, 'shadow blue'. The exquisite quality of qingbai porcelain was widely recognised, and the Southern Song ceramic historian Jiang Qi mentioned in his treatise Tao ji (Ceramic Records) that white porcelain produced at Jingdezhen was so refined and pure that it was known as Raoyu, 'jade of Rao'. Raozhou was the name of the region in which the Jingdezhen kilns were located.

A larged example was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 3231. A similarly carved meiping with broader shoulders is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Song, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 30; and another is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 417. 

A rare large carved Qingbai meiping and cover, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Sold HK$3,160,000 ($409,233) at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 3231. Photo Christie’s Ltd 2014

Christie's. THE CLASSIC AGE OF CHINESE CERAMICS - THE LINYUSHANREN COLLECTION, PART I, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall.