A RARE LARGE DOUCAI ''FLORAL' MEIPING AND COVER

QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

清十八世紀 闘彩纏枝花卉紋梅瓶連蓋

sturdily potted with a tapering body elegantly rising to a broad rounded shoulder and surmounted by a short waisted neck, the voluptuous body wreathed with prominent floral blossoms borne on stylised foliage issuing further colourful blooms and buds between a band of ruyi heads and an elongated lappet border, the neck rendered with a row of ruyi heads collaring the mouth and stylised lappet border together with a narrow band of composite scrolls skirting the foot, the well-fitted cover similarly decorated with flower scrolls and embellished with stylised lappets radiating from the lotus bud finial on the slightly domed top

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Height 46.7 cm, 18? in.

Notable for its generous proportions and finely painted feathery scroll in doucai enamels, meiping of this type are rare and no other closely related example appears to have been published. The floral scroll was masterfully executed, with each bloom and flowering bud skillfully painted as viewed from a different angle, thus creating a sophisticated and yet uncontrived design.

A slightly smaller meiping and cover with a dragon against a similarly rendered flower scroll, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 237; and one lacking the cover and painted with bajixiang, from the collection of Gordon Cummings, was sold at Christie’s New York, 3rd June 1988, lot 313.

This vase echoes in multiple ways the celebrated porcelain tradition of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644); the doucai colour scheme, whereby the outlines of the design were first painted in underglaze blue and later filled in overglaze enamels, references the Chenghua reign (r. 1465-1487), when the quality of doucai porcelain was at its peak. Its rendering of the floral blooms and feathery scroll, as well as the decorative band at the foot, on the other hand recall porcelain designs of the early Ming period. A Yongle (r. 1403-1424) period meiping, of much smaller size, painted with lotus buds and blooms, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Radiating Hues of Blue and White. Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelains in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 2016, cat. no. 15; and a reconstructed meiping with a Xuande mark and of the period, painted with dragons above a similar band at the foot, recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen, is illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2018, pl. 61.

本瓶編制龐大，闘彩紋飾秀麗，此類梅瓶甚為珍罕，據現時記載並無他例可比。本瓶番蓮紋飾精工繪製，或繪花兒盛開，或描含苞待放，角度每朵不一，構圖雅緻而不過份工整。比較一例，尺寸較小，瓶蓋飾龍紋，清宮舊藏，現存於北京，圖載於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系．五彩．鬪彩》，香港，1999年，圖版237；另比一例，無蓋，八吉祥紋飾，出自Gordon Cummings收藏，售於紐約佳士得1988年6月3日，編號313。

本瓶以明代珍瓷為藍，從數處可見：鬪彩紋飾，先施釉下青花，後上釉上彩，而成化鬪彩，誠屬至臻；瓶身施纏枝番蓮紋，近足處環施紋飾，屬於早明瓷器紋飾風格。台北故宮博物院收藏一件永樂梅瓶例，尺寸遠小於本品，繪蓮花及花苞，曾展於《藍白輝映：院藏明代青花瓷展》，台北，2016年，編號15；另比一重組梅瓶例，宣德年器並款，繪龍紋，近足處環紋與本品相近，出土自景德鎮明代御窰遺址，圖載於《明代宣德御窑瓷器》，北京，2018，圖版61。