Double Gourd-Shape Vase with Auspicious Motifs
Artist/Maker
Chinese
Dateearly 19th century
MediumGlazed porcelain with overglaze polychrome enamels
DimensionsOverall: 18 × 9 in. (45.7 × 22.9 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Charles F. and Abigail L. Olney
Object number1904.491
Status
Not on viewThis vase is a veritable encyclopedia of auspicious symbols, covered with wishes for happiness, longevity, and good fortune, often in the form of visual puns.
The many red bats that cover the vessel, as if flying in a cloudy sky, symbolize the phrase “blessings as vast as the sky” (hóngfú qítiān 洪福齐天, 洪福齊天), because the words for red and bat are homonyms with the words for vast and blessings. Each bat also carries a lucky object: at the top symbols of the legendary Daoist Eight Immortals and lucky flowers, at the bottom the Eight Buddhist Symbols of Good Fortune, and around the waist bats carry swastikas, ancient Buddhist symbols that in China were homonyms with the word for “myriad” or “ten thousand,” so paired with the bat mean “ten thousand blessings”. The other prominent symbol is the repeated roundel with flying male and female phoenixes symbolizing both a happy marriage (fènghuáng yúfēi 凤凰于飞, 鳳凰于飛) and a wish for great blessings and great prosperity, since they are facing a peony (fèngxì mǔdān 凤戏牡丹, 鳳戱牡丹) and therefore connect the king of birds with the king of flowers.
Exhibition History
The many red bats that cover the vessel, as if flying in a cloudy sky, symbolize the phrase “blessings as vast as the sky” (hóngfú qítiān 洪福齐天, 洪福齊天), because the words for red and bat are homonyms with the words for vast and blessings. Each bat also carries a lucky object: at the top symbols of the legendary Daoist Eight Immortals and lucky flowers, at the bottom the Eight Buddhist Symbols of Good Fortune, and around the waist bats carry swastikas, ancient Buddhist symbols that in China were homonyms with the word for “myriad” or “ten thousand,” so paired with the bat mean “ten thousand blessings”. The other prominent symbol is the repeated roundel with flying male and female phoenixes symbolizing both a happy marriage (fènghuáng yúfēi 凤凰于飞, 鳳凰于飛) and a wish for great blessings and great prosperity, since they are facing a peony (fèngxì mǔdān 凤戏牡丹, 鳳戱牡丹) and therefore connect the king of birds with the king of flowers.
Arts of Nineteenth Century China
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 12, 1973 - February 8, 1973 )
Forgotten Objects: Decorative Arts from the Permanent Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 9, 1986 - March 23, 1986 )
An Eclectic Ensemble: The History of the Asian Art Collection at Oberlin
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 27, 1999 - August 30, 2000 )
Chinese and Japanese Art from Antiquity to the Present
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 17, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
Asian Art and the Allen: American Collectors in the Early 20th Century
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 19, 2014 - July 12, 2015 )
Return of the Dragon
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 31, 2015 - June 5, 2016 )
Collections
- Asian
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first half 20th century
first half 20th century
early 19th century
18th–19th century
first half 20th century
first half 20th century
19th century