Large Meiping Vase with Sgraffito Design of Peonies (Cizhou ware)
Date11th or 12th century, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)
Mediumstoneware coated with a white slip and a dark slip-pigment tinted by magnetic iron oxide, under a low-lime transparent glaze
Dimensions31.8 cm (12 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsCeramics
Credit LineBequest of Margaret C. Osgood
Object number1958.2
DescriptionMei-p'ing vase. Brown and white. Pottery.Label TextMeiping means “plum vase.” Vessels of this shape were originally made for alcoholic beverages. Later they were mostly used to display a single plum blossom branch. The light gray stoneware of this vase was first covered with a layer of white slip and then with a brownish-black slip. Next the potter adorned the vase with a sgraffito (“scratched”) peony design. This “cut-glaze” design was achieved by incising veins and outlines and scraping away background areas through the brownish-black slip in order to reveal the white of the underlying slip. A clear glaze was then applied over the entire vessel. Of all the decorative techniques used in Cizhou ware production, sgraffito was the most luxurious and complex.ProvenanceMargaret C. Osgood, Boston, MA
On View
On view
Chinese
11th or 12th century, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)
Chinese
12th or early 13th century, Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
Chinese
early 15th century, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Chinese
late 11th century –early 12th century, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
