Ming vase

Noun

Ming vase (plural Ming vases)

1. (pottery) A ceramic pottery vase from the Ming period.
   • "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."2017, November 11. Andrew Adonis "Tony Blair and Europe: shattering the Ming vase", Prospect Magazine.
2. (broadly, figuratively) Something both valuable and fragile.
3. (attributive) A political strategy emphasising caution and the avoidance of controversies.
   • 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.2024, July 5. "Labour has won the British election. Now it has to seize the moment", The Economist.