Hong Kong Palace Museum | Clay to Treasure: Ceramics from the Palace Museum Collection

During the Northern Song dynasty, the Ru kilns were celebrated for their superb blue-green glazed wares, which were exclusively made for the imperial court. Ru wares were only in production about twenty years, contributing to their rarity. Already extremely rare by the Southern Song dynasty, today less than a hundred Ru wares survive.

The form of the vases was inspired by vessels from the Middle East. “Samarra Blue” (Sumali qing), a cobalt pigment imported from this area, was used to decorate the body, producing a rich and brilliant colour. The dragons are rendered in a lively manner, one intertwined with meandering floral scrolls and the other rising above a tumultuous sea. The scales of the latter were finely incised under the glaze. This pair of vases reflects the interaction between the Ming dynasty and the Islamic world.