Beschreibung:

A RARE AND LARGE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE RESERVE-DECORATED 'DRAGON' VASE, MEIPING18th century
The vase well-potted with with a tapered body rising to a broad shoulder, finely incised with a sinuous five-clawed dragon in pursuit of a flaming pearl amidst ruyi clouds and above turbulent waves crashing against rocky boulders, all reserved on an vibrant cobalt-blue ground imitating the Ming-style 'heaping and piling' effect, the base unglazed.
36.7cm (14 3/8in) high.Footnotes十八世紀 青花藍地白花海水雲龍紋梅瓶
Provenance: a British private collection
來源：英國私人收藏
Well-potted with a powerful writhing dragon pursuing the flaming pearl above cruciform clouds, the present vase is based on prototypes produced during the 15th century and exemplifies how potters during the 18th century revisited highly-regarded designs to suit contemporary taste.
The unusual technique of using raised, slip-decorated designs reserved in white against a dark blue ground, was developed in the Yuan dynasty; see for example a Yuan dynasty cover and an ink palette The excavated porcelain from the official kilns in Jingdezhen of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Beijing, 1999, pp.70-71.
Although no early Ming counterpart of identical design seems to be preserved, a vase with a very similar bold dragon was recovered from the Yongle stratum of the waste heaps of the Ming Imperial kilns, illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, no.66, fig.3. See also another meiping decorated with an incised white dragon striding above blue waves, Yongle, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, vol.3, Hong Kong, 1981, pl.A65.
Compare with a very similar blue and white reserve decorated 'dragon' meiping vase, 18th century, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (acc.no.07.31). Another similar meiping vase decorated with a dragon above waves and amidst clouds, 18th century, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, published by R.L.d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, p.114, no.LIIC, where it is dated Ming dynasty, 16th century but later dated as Yongzheng by He Li, Chinese Ceramics A New Comprehensive Survey, San Francisco, 1996, pp.290-291, no.592; see another similar vase decorated with a dragon above waves, Yongzheng, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red, vol.3, Hong Kong, 2000, pl.76.
Compare with two similar blue and white meiping vases, 18th century, which were sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2018, lot 604, and Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2021, lot 2946.