Single Stem Vase

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 <em>shinsha</em>, 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.