AN EXTREMELY UNUSUAL CLOISONNE ENAMEL MEIPING MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD

the waisted body rising to high rounded shoulders and a straight cylindrical neck, decorated to the exterior in cloisonné enamels, to the main body with peony blooms and ball flowers on meandering leafy stems before ruyi-head, floral and keyfret bands, the lower half of the body encircled by a leafy floral meander above upright lappets and a floral band, the neck with a floral scroll beneath overlapping pendant lappets, with a single lotus bloom spanning the entire base

Cloisonne shouldered vases of this unusually strongly waisted form are rare. For a vase of related proportions, but diminutive size, see a meiping decorated with a lotus pond in the Uldry Collection, illustrated by Brinker and Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonne – Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zurich, 1985, pl.41.

The design of ballflowers is unusual for the period and more often associated with Qing dynasty porcelain wares.