Oxblood Meiping Vase

This simple yet stunning vase is sculpted in the traditional meiping vase form, historically used to hold the branches of plum trees, celebrated in China as symbols of strength. The tall vase's deep, rich red glaze is often called "sang-de-boeuf" or "oxblood" in the West. The art of creating this particular glaze, which was notoriously difficult to achieve, was lost for centuries but revived in the 18th century, when the imperial court commissioned potters to recover the technique.