A rare large Qingbai ovoid vase, meiping, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Lot 1273. A rare large Qingbai ovoid vase, meiping, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 15¼ in. (38.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 18,000. Price realised USD 18,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013
The high-shouldered, tapering, body is carved with six vertical panels of simplified floral scroll rising to a bow-string border on the rounded shoulder below the slightly waisted neck and out-curved mouth rim. The vase is covered with a transparent glaze of pale greyish- aquamarine tone, Japanese wood box.
Provenance: Private Japanese collection, acquired in Tokyo in the 1970s.
Note: Compare the qingbai meiping of smaller size and of broader proportions, illustrated in L. Rotondo-McCord, Heaven and Earth Within: Song Ceramics From the Robert Barron Collection, New Orleans, 2000, p. 118, pl. 44, which is dated to the eleventh century. Like the present meiping, the Baran example is carved with pairs of vertical lines extending from the foot to the shoulder, but the vertical panels have been left undecorated.
Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 19 - 20 September 2013