Ming vase

plural Ming vases

1. potteryartA ceramic pottery vase from the Ming period.

   1 more example

   2017, November 11. Andrew Adonis "Tony Blair and Europe: shattering the Ming vase", Prospect Magazine. "Tony’s great friend and mentor, and mine, Roy Jenkins, once likened Tony’s attitude to power to the museum curator carrying a priceless Ming vase across a slippery floor, desperate not to drop it." "Roger Liddle, in his excellent first-hand account of the internal politics of European policy under Tony, says that Gordon ‘fiercely resisted’ Tony making this pre-1997 referendum commitment on the Euro. But Tony was fixated on the Ming vase and not slipping."

2. broadlyfigurativelySomething both valuable and fragile.
3. attributivegovernmentA political strategy emphasising caution and the avoidance of controversies.

   2024, July 5. "Labour has won the British election. Now it has to seize the moment", The Economist. During the campaign, fear of losing the election led the party to adopt a “Ming vase” strategy of avoiding controversy and closing down possible lines of attack.