Glazed stoneware truncated vase (xiaokouping)

Northern Song - Jin period, 12th century

Painted with three elegant peony branches, each with a single bloom and curling leaves, this vessel is testament to the peony as a favoured motif on Song ceramics. While the peony was used as a floral ornament on architecture and the decorative arts from the Tang period (618 - 907), it later came to be seen as the flower of ‘nobility and wealth’.