Yuan dynasty blue-and-white vase and cover
- Audio guide stop: 619
- Gallery: Room 33
- Culture: Yuan dynasty
- Made in: Jingdezhen
- Date: 1330-1368 (circa)
- Object type: meiping, cover
- Materials: porcelain
- Museum number: 1972,0620.1
- 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
Before you is a Yuan dynasty blue-and-white meiping vase and cover, a striking example of 14th-century porcelain artistry. Crafted in Jingdezhen, the vase has a broad, sloping shape and a narrow, flared rim. The tall cover fits snugly over the neck, ending in a flat top with a carved lotus-bud finial.
The vase and cover are richly decorated with cobalt blue painted in swirling, “heaped and piled” bands beneath a clear glaze. A powerful, S-shaped dragon with scales and fierce expression dominates the main panel, surrounded by clouds and floral patterns. Below are chrysanthemums, pomegranates, and peonies arranged in rhythmic bands.
Such meiping were used to hold wine in the Yuan dynasty. Only rarely do both vase and cover survive intact. These were often presented as gifts or traded to the Near East, as seen in similar examples in Topkapi Saray.
See it in person
Yuan dynasty blue-and-white vase and cover is on display in Room 33 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, 619, 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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