Vase with butterflies and daylilies
- Audio guide stop: 333
- Gallery: Room 95
- Culture: Ming dynasty; Yongle
- Made in: Jingdezhen
- Date: 1403-1425
- Object type: bottle
- Materials: porcelain
- Museum number: PDF.601
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
In this work, you are looking at a "Vase with Butterflies and Daylilies" from the Ming dynasty. This pear-shaped bottle is a rare and elegant example of porcelain from the early 15th century.
What stands out is the finely painted design: flowering daylily plants appear on either side, with a butterfly hovering near each. The blue underglaze is applied with remarkable skill—thicker outlines trace the sharp edges of the leaves and petals, while softer washes of the same pigment fill them with life.
This vase reflects a shift in porcelain decoration during the Yongle period. Potters began to focus on naturalistic, pure forms, influenced by small-scale ink paintings. The controlled use of cobalt pigment shows the height of technical achievement in Jingdezhen, the famed porcelain-making center in Jiangxi province.
Such detailed designs are rare, making this vase a remarkable treasure.
See it in person
Vase with butterflies and daylilies is on display in Room 95 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 333, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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