Pink Tulip | gaiwan

In a quiet studio nestled in Jingdezhen—the heartland of Chinese porcelain—an artist dips her brush into soft rose-pink pigment. Stroke by stroke, a tulip garden unfurls across the curve of a porcelain gaiwan. Each bloom leans slightly, as if caught in a spring breeze. The green stems sway gently upward, while the blossoms blush with life.

Tulips are not traditional to Chinese art, and that is what makes this gaiwan quietly radical. Their presence here is a whisper of cross-cultural admiration—of flowers brought from distant lands, now rooted in clay. Once symbols of nobility and fleeting beauty in Persian and Ottoman courts, tulips found their way to Europe, and now, unexpectedly, bloom on a vessel meant for Chinese gongfu tea.

This gaiwan is shaped in a classic form but its lines are softened, the rim slightly flared, as if echoing the open petals painted around it. The foot and knob are glazed in a soft pink, harmonizing with the tulips in a way that feels both delicate and modern.