Meiping vase with dragons

The upper part of this striking vase has relief carving with two large five-clawed dragons leaping upward with heads turned back. The dragons and two smaller ones below are shown against waves with white crests, all meticulously drawn in copper-red with tightly spaced arching lines. The design of this rare meiping is derived from an early 15th-century prototype, and examples similar to it are in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad.