Single Stem Vase

From the museum

This vase is copper red in color at the top and becomes purple closer to the bottom, not unlike a Chinese transformation or flambé glaze with mottling and dripping of the glaze. The lip of the vase and much of the lion-head designs remain white. On the box lid, the color of the glaze is called shinsha, which is often glossed as copper red or oxblood, or sometimes cinnabar. Here, it is meant to refer to a Qing-dynasty glazing technique developed in an effort to reproduce a red glaze used during the reign of the Xuande emperor (1426–35) of the Ming dynasty. This vase has lion heads for “ears."

The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC0