Sold Ceramics - Sold Red & Gold / Rouge-de-Fer 1690-1730 - Tea, Coffee and Chocolate wares -
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Object 2011710
Saucer
China
1710-1730
Height 19 mm (0.75 inch), diameter of rim 110 mm (4.33 inch), diameter of footring 60 mm (2.36 inch), weight 41 grams (1.45 ounce (oz.))
Saucer on footring with a straight slightly flaring rim. Decorated in 'Red & Gold' or 'Rouge de Fer' with iron-red and gold on the glaze with a central roundel filled with a woman seated at a table on a fenced terrace looking at a little boy playing. The roundel is surrounded by three pomegranate-shaped cartouches alternately filled with a little boy riding on the back of a buffalo, a fisherman walking in a riverscape and two men fishing in shallow water. The cartouches are reserved on a golden ground decorated with various kinds of fish, shrimps, crabs, shells and two, three legged, toads. The reverse is undecorated.
The three legged toad (twice depicted on this saucer), Jin Chan, 金 蟾, literally "Golden Toad", is most commonly translated as "Money Toad" or "Money Frog". This mythical creature is said to appear during the full moon, near houses or businesses that will soon receive good news (most of the time, the nature of this good news is understood to be wealth-related). According to one Chinese legend, the Jin Chan was the greedy wife of one of the Eight Immortals, who was transformed into a toad as punishment for stealing the Peaches of Immortality. The Jin Chan is usually depicted as a bullfrog with red eyes, flared nostrils and only one hind leg (for a total of three legs) and is often shown in the company of the Immortal Liu Hai (刘 海). The Toad is a ‘semi immortal’ animal. (wikipedia / S.Fan)
In Daoist mythology the three-legged toad is said to live on the moon, which it swallows during an eclipse, this making it a symbol of the unattainable. (Jörg & Van Campen 1997, p.106, cat. 100)
For a saucer decorated with three, three legged toads, please see:
Condition: Wear to the decoration and a hairline to the rim.
References:
Jörg & Van Campen 1997, cat. 100
Price: Sold.
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