Note: This vase represents one of the classic patterns of the Yongle period (1403-24) that illustrates the phenomenal advances made by Jingdezhen’s potters and painters in less than a century, since blue-and-white porcelain began to be made there. Both in terms of its well-proportioned shape, which was produced with various kinds of decoration, and its lush fruit pattern, one of the most popular motifs of early Ming (1368-1644) blue-and-white which appears equally on other shapes of the period, this design set a standard of excellence that would be emulated for centuries to come.

Meiping, in the Yongle period perhaps still used as wine jars, were made in various sizes and were equally popular in China and abroad, as examples preserved both in the Chinese palace collections and the Safavid and Ottoman royal collections in Iran and Turkey document. Although some scholars have attributed some of these vases to the Xuande reign (1426-35), all vessels of this design appear to be unmarked.

Several early Ming meiping of similar design and size as the present vase are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see a Yongle piece illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 12, pl. 12; another in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pl. 85; and a third, attributed to the Xuande period, published in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, cat. no. 76.

Blue and white 'fruits' meiping, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424) in the Palace Museum, Beijing.

Blue and white ‘fruit sprays’ meiping, Ming dynasty, Yongle period, Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing. After: Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui, Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pl. 85.

Two blue and white meiping of this design, one attributed to the Yongle, the other to the Xuande period, are also in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated catalogue of important Ming porcelains], Tokyo, 1977-78, vol. 1, pls 12 and 39, the two examples slightly varying in proportion, and the latter with the design more tightly arranged, and with a cover.

For two similar vases out of a total of six from the Ottoman Royal collection, see Regina Krahl and John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2, London, 1986, no. 624; and four meiping of this design from the Safavid Royal collection preserved in the Ardabil Shrine in Iran are recorded and one of them illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956 (rev. ed., London, 1981), pl. 51 top right.