Dark-blue-glazed Plum Vase with White-dragon Pattern

As one of the “greatest treasures” of Yangzhou Museum, this plum vase, or meiping, named after its function to keep plum branches, has an elegant shape, a vivid and exquisite decorative pattern, and an eye-catching pure dark-blue glaze. With a narrow mouth and a short neck, the vase enlarges from the neck downwards in a gradual way, then tapers at the lower half, and finally widens a little bit to form a stable base. Around the belly area of the vase there is a pattern known as “dragon chasing fireball”, with a raised head, two horns stretching backwards, and sharp, piercing eyes highlighted by the blue-glaze-dot pupils against the while-glazed body. The long-necked dragon opens its mouth, showing its sharp buckteeth, and stretching its four claws with pointed nails. Around the dragon are four flame-shaped clouds, each decorated with a small pearl at the bottom. These clouds look just like floating coral trees, serving as a foil to the magnificent dragon flying in the sky, with a bundle of mane hair flowing backwards along its flight. The pure dark-blue glaze of this vase, as a result of high-temperature baking, which added to the categories of porcelain glaze, laid the foundation for the later great development of porcelain-making techniques in Jingdezhen during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912 AD).