Doucai Porcelain 15th Century Ming Dynasty Chenghua Mark & Period Meiping Dragon Vase (WORLD CLASS) Joseph.Sharon@chinesemasterpieces.com
This is a extremely fine Chinese antique doucai Three Dragon Meiping Vase. Doucai means contrasting colors they used, under glaze blue out lines filled in with colored enamel that are well balanced and artistically pleasing using a whimsical Style. What make this Vase so important is it's large size and the masterful way the artist used color to creat almost a perfect balance of contrasting the colors. The Vase has several band of Phoenix's, Dragons, And Flying Horses You can clearly see the under glaze blue used was the imported cobalt called Samali blue and this was mixed with the local cobalt pitang and this gave the Chenghua period the most beautiful refined Cobalt blue in Chinese history and very easy to distinguish from other cobalts that China has used. They haven't imported the samali blue for or 500 years and today they're not sure where in Persia it even came from. The clay that was used in the Finest Doucai wares of the Imperial Chenghua Kiln had slightly off white color, somewhat like the color of bone. You can clearly see this also they used high firing kilns that often would turn the foot and ring brownish. The Vase Has the six character mark of the Chenghua on the shoulder. The Chenghua period was the pinnacle of the Doucai technique and this Vase confirms why, this Vase is in a class of it own. There are those that believe that no large doucai ware were produced during the Chenghua period thats not true. And this Meiping vase proves that it's not true. This Ming Dynasty Chenghua Period Dragon Meiping Vase measures approximately. 19" tall. (click image to enlarge)