Jingdezhen Cobalt Dragon Crackle Meiping Vase

The Meiping form gathers its visual weight at the shoulder. A short neck opens above the rounded upper body, then the sides draw inward toward the foot. Across that curve, the cobalt-blue dragon turns through clouds and flames before meeting a wave border at the base.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds related Qing dynasty Jingdezhen meiping vases with dragons: one places dragons amid waves in underglaze blue and copper red, while another reserves white dragons against a crackled blue ground. These precedents show why the Meiping silhouette has long suited a dragon composition: the broad shoulder lets the body coil around the vessel instead of reading as a flat emblem.

The pale crackle glaze keeps the ground active without competing with the deep blue decoration. Medium and Large versions are supplied with fitted wooden display stands. Choose this form when the dragon should feel wrapped around a powerful central mass, with every turn revealing another passage of cloud, flame, scale, or wave.

• Material: Jingdezhen porcelain
• Origin: Jingdezhen, China
• Form: Meiping vase with a short neck, broad shoulders and tapering body
• Surface: Pale crackle glaze
• Decoration: Cobalt-blue dragon, cloud and flame forms, and waves
• Medium height: 30 cm / 11.8 in
• Medium mouth diameter: 6.5 cm / 2.6 in
• Medium body diameter: 18 cm / 7.1 in
• Medium base diameter: 11 cm / 4.3 in
• Large height: 40 cm / 15.7 in
• Large mouth diameter: 13 cm / 5.1 in
• Large body diameter: 20 cm / 7.9 in
• Large base diameter: 13 cm / 5.1 in
• Included: One porcelain vase and one fitted wooden display stand
• Date: Contemporary