The year inscribed on the Yuan-dynasty Chinese porcelain pair known as the David Vases is 1351.
The two vases are blue-and-white porcelain masterpieces now divided between the British Museum in London and the Percival David Foundation collection. Their inscription records that they were made in the 11th year of the Zhizheng era, corresponding to 1351, and dedicated to a Daoist temple in Hangzhou.
The inscription is unusually valuable because it provides a precise date for blue-and-white porcelain made at Jingdezhen. Cobalt decoration on white porcelain had developed earlier, but Yuan workshops greatly expanded the scale and sophistication of this technique. The vases are decorated with dragons among clouds and waves, imagery associated with imperial and auspicious symbolism.
A common mix-up is calling them Ming objects: they are Yuan-dynasty works, produced before the Ming dynasty began in 1368. Their popular name comes from Sir Percival David, who assembled the collection that included one of the pair.