Lot 1183. A rare iron-red, green, yellow and turquoise-glazed vase, meiping, Late Ming dynasty, 16th century, 9 ½ in. (24.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 20,000 - USD 30,000. Unsold. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The vase is decorated predominantly in iron red and green with small touches of yellow and turquoise glaze, the upper register with two pairs of four-clawed dragons contesting a flaming pearl amidst ruyi-form clouds and above waves crashing against rocks, and the lower register with two phoenixes with long, trailing tail feathers in flight amidst leafy flower scroll, all between a cloud collar on the shoulder, and a petal-lappet band above the foot, Japanese wood box.

Note: The particular combination of iron-red and green, yellow and turquoise glazes on this slender meiping, found primarily during the Jiajing period (1521-1567). According to Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt in Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, p. 164, in her discussion of the 'Red-and-Green' Group, this palette would come to dominate polychrome porcelains, eventually leading to the appearance of famille verte during the second half of the seventeenth century. Wares of this type were usually decorated primarily in iron-red and green, with some yellow. More unusually, there was sometimes the addition of turquoise, as seen on a large jar and cover in the Musée Guimet, illustrated op. cit., p. 165, pl. 146, and on the present meiping. See, also, the more broadly proportioned meiping of Jiajing date illustrated by Liu Liang-yu in Ming Official Wares, Taipei,1991, p. 195, that is decorated in iron-red and green with two bands of flower scroll arranged between decorative borders above and below in a fashion similar to the decoration on the present meiping.