Exclusive Collection Vase Panda

Its presence is seen as a good omen, for which reason the giant panda is both an auspicious symbol and a revered national animal in China. Despite the limited extent of its natural habitat, it has become familiar the world over as the logo for the World Wildlife Fund and frequently also as a symbol for the protection of species in general. Its population in the wild had dwindled to fewer than a thousand by the 1980s, though immense human endeavour has led to its doubling again over the past 30 years.

The decorative scheme devised by our painter Victoria Schmidt portrays a friendly panda mother with her cub in two wholly typical scenes: on the obverse sitting munching bamboo leaves, on the reverse blissfully asleep. Girdling the vase's neck and foot is a dense bamboo forest, virtually the panda's only source of nourishment, set within bands of glossy-black ground colour and delicate strips of gilding. Little trails of gilt, hand-painted bear's paws have been harmoniously incorporated as elegant highlights. Porcelain painter Michaela Hummitzsch's ephemeral, dexterously breezy style imparts an organic sense of modernity to the scheme. As light as the scene appears, the artistic realisation of the decoration on such a large vase was difficult. The effort involved in bringing about Meissen's latest contribution to contemporary animal painting more than does justice to this splendid creature.