Bottle vase, ‘The Morgan Ruby’, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662–1722), China. Morgan Library and Museum, New York. Photo: Graham S. Haber; © Morgan Library and Museum

Of all the treasures in New York’s Morgan Library and Museum, one draws me in with singular force. A deep, gleaming red, it seems at once to contain and reflect light, like a jewel. Unlike a jewel, it stands 40cm high. With a long narrow neck and wider curving body, it is a Chinese porcelain bottle vase that dates from the Kangxi reign (1662–1722) of the Qing dynasty and is now called the Morgan Ruby. Its placement on a plinth near a floor-to-ceiling window affords 360-degree views of its flawless surface and intense colour in natural light. The monochrome copper-oxide glaze, which is notoriously hard to control, has to be fired in wood-burning kilns, with reduced oxygen, at extremely high temperatures. The Chinese describe the colour as langyaohong (‘official-kiln red’); some Western experts call it oxblood (sang de boeuf).

https://apollo-magazine.com/jp-morgan-red-chinese-vase-qing-dynasty-porcelain/