A pair of Ming-style blue and white 'fruits' vases (Meiping), Seal marks and period of Qianlong

Acquired in Amsterdam in the 1960s by the grandfather of the present owner, and thence by descent.

This dazzling pair of meiping represents the apogee of Qing dynasty blue-and-white designs on porcelain. Influenced by the classical floral and fruit designs of the Ming dynasty but adapted to align with Qianlong period aesthetics, the pair features sprays of vibrant variegated cobalt blue on a ground of fine white porcelain, and stands as a testament to the technical mastery and artistic vision of imperial artisans at the height of the High Qing. 

Meiping of this grand type are well attested, though are very rarely found in pairs. Compare a closely related example in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 215; and another, from the Edward T. Chow (1910-1980) Collection, illustrated in Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, Qing Porcelain, London, 1987, pl. 153, and sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 546. See also a third vase from the collections of T.Y. Chao and Tianminlou, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain: The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 63, where Julian Thompson refers to Qing wares of this style as “redesigns of Yongle patterns,” particularly in the borders, where simulated ‘heaping and piling’ of the cobalt blue serves to heighten the three-dimensional quality of the design (p. 30), and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2023, lot 2714.

Further vases of this type include one from the Shorenstein collection, sold twice at Christie’s Hong Kong, 18th March 1991, lot 567 and 1st December 2010, lot 2970; another from the collections of Robert Chang and Dr Alice Cheng, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 123; another sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2020, lot 3067; and a fourth example, sold in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2022, lot 263.

By the Qianlong period, the nonchalant charm of the Ming original had evolved into a crisply organised motif: the form of the meiping – its dramatic silhouette characterised by broad shoulders tapering to a narrow foot – required a reinvention of the early design. Leafy flowering branches extend out around the shoulder, neatly converging at a point in the form of an inverted triangle to complement the swell of the shoulders, while the fruiting branches composed in a diamond form highlight the narrow lower section of the vase. For a 15th century prototype of this design, see a meiping in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated catalogue of important Ming porcelains], vol. 1, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 12.