Lot 26. An exceptionally rare and large Cizhou white-glazed sgraffiato 'Peony' vase, meiping, Northern Song Dynasty; 34.7cm high. (2). Sold for HK$6,989,000 © Bonhams 2026

With tall rounded sides rising from a countersunk base to the high shoulders set with a slightly waisted neck and galleried rim, superbly and boldly carved through the white slip to the buff-coloured body with a foliate peony meander elegantly incised with detailed lines over three levels, all between elongated chrysanthemum lappets above the foot and around the shoulders, all beneath a translucent milky glaze, fitted box.

Provenance: The Chang Foundation, Taipei

The Le Cong Tang Collection

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 October 2017, lot 13

Published and Illustrated: James Spencer (comp.), Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, cat. no. 49

Exhibited, Published and Illustrated: Ching Wan Society Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: Works of Art, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. 29

Note: The present meiping vase is exceptionally rare and is a masterpiece of its type. Only a handful of closely related examples appear to have been published.

These include a Cizhou white-glazed sgraffiato 'peony' meiping, Northern Song dynasty, which was excavated from the Cizhou kiln site at Guantai, Hebei Province, and reconstructed from shards, illustrated by Zhao Xuefeng, Zhongguo Cizhouyao (China's Cizhou Wares), Chongqing, 2004, p. 28, and presently in the Office for the Protection of Cultural Relics in Ci County; for additional similarly decorated related vessels and fragments see Guantai Cizhou yaozhi (The Cizhou Kiln Site at Guantai), Beijing, 1997, col. pl. XXI, no. 1 (fragments of other vessels), no. 2 (a pillow fragment), and pl. XXIV, no. 2 (a vase). This vase is adorned with two ranks of blossoms compared to the present lot displaying three.

A second meiping, in complete condition as the present vase, was excavated in Tangyin county, Henan Province, in 1959 and is now in the Henan Museum, and is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji (Complete Series on Chinese Ceramics), Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 7, pl. 203 (there attributed to the Dangyangyu kiln). The same vase is attributed by Qin Dashu, to the Guantai kiln, as noted in his essay 'Baiyou tihua zhuangshide chansheng, fajue ji xiangguan wenti/The Origin and Development of White Slip Sgraffiato Decoration and Related Issues', Wenwu, 2001, no. 11, p. 70, fig. 9 and p. 75, fig. 19 (showing the two known excavated vases detailed above). This vase is very similar to the present lot in size, form and decoration - it is equally decorated with three levels of peony blooms.

Similarly decorated meiping vases were also produced in the Guantai kiln with a transparent green glaze. See a similar vase (39.8cm high), from the George Eumorfopoulos collection, at the British Museum, London, acc.no.1936,1012.175, published in Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art 1935-6, London, 1935, no.1233, and most recently in Sarah Wong and Stacey Pierson, eds., Collectors, Curators, Connoiseurs: A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 2021, pp.60-61, no.1. Jessica Harrison-Hall in her Catalogue note states that in addition to the emerald-green tone, the Eumorfopoulos vase is unusual in the peonies being repeated all over the surface of the vase (same as the present lot) rather than being limited to only a few blooms.

Other variations of tone in Cizhou vases include brown, brown and cream, blue and black painted and polychrome. The decorative process in producing the vase would have been complex and requiring several stages. Firstly, applying white clay to the fire, denoting the pattern, removing the part outside the outline of the pattern, and finally covering it with transparent glaze and firing the finished product in the kiln. This method provides a three-dimensional effect which deepens the visual impact, further strengthened by the contrasting lighter and darker areas, and finally the juxtaposition of the broad register of darker tone with the cream tone of the lappets framing it below and above - culminating in what can only be described as masterful design and pottery.

A related but smaller Cizhou sgraffiato 'peony' vase, meiping, Northern Song dynasty, decorated in brown and white tones, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9 September 2025, lot 5008.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 4 May 2026, Hong Kong.